January 8 — Ian Poulter called him a “snitch.” Others believe he’s a loser, a “wannabe rules official,” or a couch potato lolling about in his boxer shorts. Dave Andrews, the TV viewer who dropped a dime on Camilo Villegas’ rules gaffe during the opening round of the PGA Tour’s Hyundai Tournament of Champions, is actually none of those things.
“I’d do it again.” “That’s not me,” Andrews, a New Hampshire native, said in a phone interview from his winter home in Daytona Beach, Fla. “I would do it again, all things being equal, because I’m not embarrassed or ashamed of what I did.”
What Andrews did was to notice during Golf Channel’s Thursday night broadcast of the tour’s season opener that Villegas moved some turf while his golf ball rolled back down the bank toward him on the 15th hole of the Plantation Course at Kapalua. He and a few golf buddies were watching the first golf tourney of the 2011 season when Villegas flicked a loose impediment away with his golf club. One of Andrews’ pals insisted that the golfer had violated a rule so the gang checked out the Rules of Golf on the web and, sure enough, Villegas had breached Rule 23-1.
Stunned. “We were stunned that when they showed the replay no one picked up on it on TV or in an official capacity,” Andrews said. “I sent out two tweets [to the Golf Channel and the PGA Tour]. I never did call anybody, I never made a phone call to Golf Channel or the tour. All I did was send out two tweets and one e-mail.”
If Andrews sounds defensive, he’s anything but. The 60-year-old retired TV reporter and freelance writer was “just trying to give [tour officials] some information,” he said. “It’s up to them to make the call. I wasn’t trying to be a rules official over the phone.”
The rest, as they say, is pop history. Andrews’ deed made it to the front pages of prominent websites and blogs, and golf watchers have spent some 24 hours arguing about whether he made the right call or did the devil’s bidding. For his part, Andrews said he “can see both sides.
What would you do? “I understand people not thinking viewers should get involved,” he said. With golf unique in that it’s a sport in which players police themselves, Andrews wondered what one should do “if you see someone violate the rules and not call it on himself. I have no answer, but it’s an intriguing question.”
Andrews, an avid golfer with an 11-handicap, does not exactly sit around the house making crank calls. He tees it up regularly during the short New England summer at Beaver Meadow Golf Course, his home course in Concord, N.H. In fact, while the stuff hit the fan yesterday, he and some golfing partners spent the day at LPGA International in Daytona Beach. He breezed back home to learn via Twitter and the web of his new-found infamy.
LPGA Futures Tour booster. As a huge fan of the LPGA and the women’s Futures Tour, Andrews has also written a book about the young women trying to make it on the professional golf circuit. The would-be stars who tee it up annually at Beaver Meadow were the inspiration for his self-published novel, “Pops and Sunshine,” the screenplay of which he’s shopping around in Hollywood.
As for the disqualification of Villegas that followed Andrews’ Twitter tip, Andrews believes the tour ought to consider altering the regs so that the penalty that fits the crime.
“I [wish] people could have rectified the situation sooner and agreed [on the penalty] before he was disqualified,” Andrews said. “If the tour is going to take information from viewers…and if the situation arises again, I hope someone would think about changing the rules and penalizing the guy one or two strokes but not disqualify him from the tournament.”
Better tracking system. Failing that, or ensuring that golfers know the rules, as they do on the European Tour, officials should do a better job of keeping tabs on players.
“The tour should have a better system of monitoring play on TV to avoid having a schmuck from who-knows-where raise a stink like this,” Andrews said.
(Emily Kay is a regular contributor to New England Golf Monthly. Check her out on the Waggle Room, Boston Golf Examiner, and National Golf Examiner websites. You may also follow Kay on Twitter.)
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