August 22 — In the latest rules flap to hit professional golf, LPGA officials disqualified Juli Inkster from the Safeway Classic for swinging a club with a weighted training device in the middle of a round.
No doughnuts for you. The 50-year-old Inkster has played enough golf to know that using an artificial training aid — in this case, a so-called weighted “doughnut” — during a tourney is a definite no-no, according to Rule 14-3 of the USGA’s Rules of Golf. The reg clearly states that players “must not use any artificial device” during a “stipulated round.”
The rules bible also states that the penalty for breaching said prohibition is disqualification. No way around that one, as officials confirmed after they called the USGA and learned there was no “wiggle room,” LPGA director of tournament competitions Sue Witters told the Associated Press. “It’s pretty cut and dried.”
It’s unlikely the Hall of Famer fitted the weight to her club to gain any sort of advantage, which the USGA states as the rationale behind the rule. In fact, Inkster said later that it was to stay limber while waiting for a reported 30 minutes on the 10th tee of the Ghost Creek Course.
Rules are rules. But, as the golf world so well knows after the past week (see: Dustin Johnson, PGA Championship), rules are rules — even if officials learn of the breach of one from a tattle-tale TV watcher with too much time on her or his hands.
Here’s what reportedly happened: The Golf Channel interviewed Inkster on the tee, after which the golfer put the weight on her 9-iron and began swinging it. A viewer reportedly sent an e-mail to officials, who escalated the message to the LPGA rules police, who learned of the problem while Inkster was on the 17th hole. Officials told Inkster of her status after her final hole, according to several reports.
Despite the way it went down, it’s somewhat incredible that Inkster, who shot a second-round 67 (it’s a 54-hole tourney) to put her at 8-under and only three shots off Ai Miyazato’s lead, was unaware of the rule.
Who’s to blame? Sure, Inkster could point a finger at her caddie for not stopping her from making such a costly error. And, as many have argued about the Dustin Johnson incident, an official might have stepped in to warn her before she attached the device.
As with Johnson’s bunker brouhaha as well, however, the eventual responsibility rests with the golfer, who briefly explained her reasoning following her round.
Disappointed. “I had a 30-minute wait and I needed to loosen up,” Inkster said in a statement. “It had no effect on my game whatsoever, but it is what it is. I’m very disappointed.”
No one will ever know if Inkster would have DQ’d herself if she learned of her indiscretion following her round. With participants endlessly touting golf as a game of integrity, however, chances are good she would have.
But this stinks.
Can anyone imagine umpires paying any heed at all to an outraged baseball fan phoning the clubhouse after a particularly egregious call on the field? Of course not.
Should it not be up to LPGA and PGA Tour competitors and officials — not armchair refs– to call penalties? Tour officials should stop basing their rulings on what couch potatoes tell them they see on their screens.
Walshe in contention. Boston golfer Alison Walshe (Westford, Mass.) was in the hunt midway through the final round of the Safeway Classic in North Plains, Ore. With a birdie at the par-4 seventh hole, Walshe’s 1-under through eight put her six strokes back of Miyazato and in a tie for 13th for the tourney.
Walshe, a rookie whose best finish on tour as a professional was a share of 62nd, was the only New Englander playing Sunday. Libby Smith (Essex Junction, Vt.) and Liz Janangelo (West Hartford, Conn.) missed the cut.
(Emily Kay is a regular contributor to New England Golf Monthly. Check her out at the Boston Golf Examiner and National Golf Examiner websites.)
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