YES. First, it was Camilo Villegas being disqualified for signing a wrong scorecard in Hawaii. Then, a few days later, it was Padraig Harrington in Abu Dhabi. Who’s next? A “good walk spoiled” for two of the sports high-profile players turned into a tormented walk inside the ropes, due to fluky rules violations, called in by separate television viewers, from the comfortable confines of their own living room. Who could make this goofy golf stuff up? This is not a tale from the darkside, but straight from the truth-is stranger-than-fiction file, and the issue has caused a firestorm of controversy over what the PGA & European TOUR should do about social media whistle blowers around the world pointing out rules violations via Twitter feeds and Facebook posts!
Not since 1987 when Craig Stadler put a towel under his knees to protect his pants during an awkward shot under a tree and some keen spectator saw it on television, got in touch with the PGA Tour, and we had our first fan-related DQ, have so many golfers got their mojo worked up.
Because of these fan-intervention cases of “snitching,” we have more questions raised than answered, such as: Do the pros know the rules? Where are the rules officials when you need them? Should a rules official be installed in the TV booth during the entire telecast? Are players shown during the telecast subject to more scrutiny than those not shown? Should there be a time limit after signing the scorecard to prevent DQ? Is it time for the Royal & Ancient to review the scorecard issue? Are TV rules geeks the toast of the golf world?
Let’s go to the tape. Golf is different than other sports and competitors play by an honor code and call penalties on themselves. If rules officials want to go to the videotape after rounds to review potential breaches of the rules, I have no problem with that. Since the chances of this happening again any time soon is rarer than an albatross (double-eagle), I embrace the drama of the never-ending cycle of Big Brother is watching for transgressions.
Remember Dustin Johnson faux pas on the final hole of last year’s PGA Championship? Personally, I think the guy and his caddy “choked” under the pressure and chaos, but if it happened on the sixth hole of the opening round, there’s a chance no one would have noticed and there would be no available video replay. We’re talking about golf and its rules and rule makers, who treat the game’s 34 rules like the Ten Commandments.
It didn’t take any DQ hungry, armchair quarterback to impose the penalty on Johnson because the violation was obvious and a rules official alertly made the call, imposing the proper two-stroke penalty, before he signed his card. Message to DJ: read Bunkers 101!
Until some of the smart, well paid officials of the PGA Tour have a full-time rules official watch every moment of the telecast in HDTV and be the one that spots the problem, let the fans get involved. Incredible as it seems, golf remains the only sport in which fans can have a direct affect on the outcome.
If they made me Commissioner of Golf, I would DQ more players. I would DQ for using the F-bomb during play, for tossing a club, slamming a club into the ground & for spitting. Yes, spitting. I want players DQd for spitting while playing. Under Gorman’s rules of golf, three spits in 18 holes & you’re out! Immediate DQ and no appeal!
And, please Mr. Geary and other proponents of change please don’t blame the messenger. The Golf Channel & major TV networks are feeding the beast within us that strive to watch as much “live” pro golf as we can! Don’t want to hear the lame excuse that some viewers have way too much free time.
More so than any other sport golf clings to the notion that the game you see played on Tour Sunday is the same that will be played at Everytown, USA and every Municipal on Monday. Disqualifications have been a part of the game since golf went to the big screen, and HD clarity only promises to embolden armchair rules officials in the future!
Is the game being held hostage by rules violations? Hell, no. Long live busybody television viewers!
(Tom Gorman, a member of the Golf Writers Association of America, International Network of Golf and Golf Travel Writers of America, is a Boston-based freelance golf writer.)
