At the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, Camillo Villegas hit a chip shot that didn't quite make it up the hill and started rolling back down to his position. Afraid the ball may come to rest next to some loose impediments, he swept them aside. Unfortunately, doing so put him in breach of Rule 23-1 that states "when a ball is in motion, a loose impediment that might inflence the movement of the ball must not be removed." Penalty for breach of this rule, two strokes in stroke play.
This week (Thursday), Padraig Harrington caused his ball to move when he lifted the ball marker after replacing his ball. Had he replaced the ball back into the correct position, there would not have been a penalty. Unfortunately, he did not believe the ball had moved and played it from its new position, incurring a two stroke penalty.
Villegas and Harrington signed and returned their respective score cards without adding the penalty strokes to their scores, resulting in both players being disqualified under Rule 6-6d. Both incidences were brought to the attention of the respective TOUR officials by viewers calling in. As one could expect, this has renewed the controversy of whether viewers should be permitted to call in when a violation is observed.
Tim Rosenforte, on Golf Central prior to and after Saturday's coverage of The Hope, reported that the USGA and R&A were "absolutely reopening the discussion of viewers calling in to report rules violations." This information was based on comments Mike Davis (USGA Senior Director of Rules and Competitions) made to Rosenforte immediately before going on the air.
Last Tuesday (prior to Harrington's gaffe), The Morning Drive (The Golf Channel's morning show) interviewed Jack Nicklaus and asked him what rule he would change. He answered that "the whole book on the Rules of Golf should be changed" and the Rules don't follow "common sense". He claimed a USGA Rules Official said it was easier to pass the bar exam than passing the rules exam necessary to be a rules official. (While I have not taken the bar exam, I have taken the rules exam no less than eight times and cannot believe his claim.) Jack is one of the game's greats and is entitled to his opinion, but keep in mind he has been quoted as saying a player shouldn't have to play from a divot in the middle of the fairway after a great drive.The person that has offered the most (in my opinion) fact-based, non-emotional comments is The Golf Channel's Brandell Chamblee. His comments put the responsibility of knowing the Rules back on the players -- where they should be. Chamblee admitted to having attended a rules program (at least the first two days) and coming away realizing that he doesn't know the rules as well as he should.
In an interview last week for the Rules column in MNGolfer, I commented that if a player chooses to play in a tournament without a good knowledge of the Rules, he is doing so at his own risk. In some regards, it is like buying a house. We must initial every page of the sales contract signifying we have read and understood what is on the page. Yet, how many of us actually read every word on every page? If we don't, then aren't we doing so at our own risk? We are not getting off the hook if something goes wrong. We can't claim ignorance or say the rule doesn't make common sense, and we shouldn't be held liable.
Lastly, the comments have been that this isn't fair to the best players since they are on television more than the non-marquee players. Maybe this is the price of being a marquee player. After all, there are many people who do the horrible, unacceptable things Tiger did without the public scrutiny and outcry. Should Tiger's actions be lessened since he is a public figure? Or, should we hold all people to the same level of expectations and standards regardless of their notoriety (or lack thereof)?
I'd love to hear what you have to say about this! In the mean time, let's hope we don't have more rules violations to discuss until my next post.
Until then-
Doug
