Wie Allowed To Finish Round Before Being DQ'd
This just looks awful for the LPGA more than Michelle Wie or the Rules of Golf.
How do not have an official from the Tour doing scorecards and preventing this?
Sue Witters, the LPGA's director of tournament competitions, disqualified Wie in a small office in an LPGA trailer at the golf course after asking her what had happened.Are you kidding me? No...
"She was like a little kid after you tell them there's no Santa Claus," Witters said.
Wie said that after she finished her round on Friday, she left the tent where players sign their scorecards and was chased down by some of the tournament volunteers working in the tent who pointed out she hadn't signed.
Wie returned to the tent and signed the card.
"I thought it would be OK," she said.
But Wie, according to Witters, had already walked outside the roped-off area around the tent. At that point, the mistake was final.
According to the LPGA statement, LPGA rules dictate that the scoring area is the roped area defining the boundary of the scoring tent.
The area may also be marked by a white line, which has the effect of decreasing the size of the scoring area. At the State Farm Classic, the white line wasn't deemed necessary and as a result, the scoring area was the tent.
Witters said she and other tour officials didn't learn about the error from volunteers until well after Wie teed off Saturday. They let her finish the round, then took her to the office where she and her caddy, Tim Vickers, were informed of the ruling.
Wie, who is playing a part-time schedule while attending Stanford, opened with a 5-under 67 and followed with rounds of 65 and 67 -- though the last two won't count.
Saturday, July 19, 2008 at 04:25 PM
Reader Comments (31)
At least this isn't a mess that points to Team Wie.
What a shame; those are great scores.
i agree that the rule is ridiculous, but team wie was pretty pro-active in dodging rule 88, which nobody had ever heard of until she withdrew.
i feel bad for wie. just when she starts playing well and this happens. i hope she manages to keep her head on straight after this.
It is mind boggling that the LPGA would not have one of their tournament officials in the scoring area to assist with the scoring. Instead they left it to underappreciated volunteers that may not know the proper LPGA protocols when a mistake like this occurs.
Wie left the scoring area, was asked to come back and sign her card, which she probably looked over again to verify it then signed. Is that really a big enough issue to dq any player over?
The LPGA already screwed State Farm with taking away the traditional labor day date for their event and placed it before the Evian Masters and The Womens British Open pretty much guaranteeing a nearly starless field.
So now due to the mishandling of this incident the LPGA dq's the only "name" in the event that will draw press interest and tv viewers is booted over an LPGA protocol snafu. Now kiss your already miniscule tv ratings and press coverage of the event goodbye.
Until the LPGA gets competent management, something it appears they will never have, they will long be considered a giant joke as far as professional sports organizations are run.
This kind of thing happens pretty regularly. How stupid are these players?
I do agree that it is a shame that the LPGA (and other major tours) can't put one of their own people in the scoring area.
Thanks for chiming in, I figured you would have a take.
Seems to me most golf organizations have a person there. I know the PGA Tour does. Granted, I don't know how she forgets to sign it, but it's such a minor mistake with such awful consequences in this case. At the moment there's a quote I'm looking for related to professionals and scorecards, but I can't find it...oh well.
This DQ was just plain wrong. I contend that Wie was off the hook when she signed her card at the request of a tournament scoring person. It was in timely fashion. Though embarrassing, the other circumstances don't matter.
Rule 6-6, page 31. (A player is deemed to have returned her score card to the Committee when she leaves the roped area of the scoring tent or leaves the scoring trailer).
This is the LPGA version of the USGA rule.
The ONLY unfortunate part of this is that she played Saturday, but considering that she played well and a bunch of paying customers got to see her- that's probably a good thing.
In the karmic realm, perhaps it was just a round of cosmic payback for leaving Annika's tournament early to practice for whatever the heck it was last year....
It's nice that she's playing well, perhaps at some point she will learn to speak publicly without the umms, and the likes and all that crap, and hey, who knows, maybe she'll win a tournament some day!
She signed her card for her correct score.
She didn't leave the golf course, she left a tent to go sign autographs outside. She hadn't blatantly screwed her score up or tried to take a better score than she actually played. She didn't cheat or do anything that gave her an unfair advantage.
She signed her card for her correct score. Period.
On the other hand, a volunteer's salary gets dwarfed by Bamberger strolling down the school supply aisle at a Palm Desert Walgreens with a fistful of dollars (never mind Clair Peterson's ER deductible). What's next, Lou having a bad week at the track?
So she signs her card and goes to bed at the top of the leaderboard. Then an official hears the story well into the next day and sits on it until she finishes her round, leaving no doubt that The Brand Lady was consulted. You can:
a) get payback for Rule 88/Annika fallout
b) carry a grudge for playing with the dudes while Ochoa/Creamer are lighting it up and SI posts swimsuit galleries of your rank and file
c) attempt to upstage the British Open.
or:
d) Quietly admonish her for breaking a rule that did not give her any advantage whatsoever, maybe assess a two stroke penalty local rule made up on the fly, massage Charlie Rymer's ego escape all media attention.
If nothing else, from here on out, get volunteers from the local Homicide Unit to draw chalk lines in the grass outlining Wie's body, the milk glass, cookie plate, landing strip for the sleigh and arrows pointing towards the next taxi bound for O'Hare.
LPGA has messed up because they do not have a paid professional in the scoring tent. Volunteers should be available to assist, not connect with the critical resolution of the event.
Wie messed up. She should be able to sign her card. Chema's line of thinking is vacuous. The heat of the moment has nothing to do with getting in to Stanford. I wonder if Chema has been rejected too often in its life.
Sir Real is also vapid. The caddie would not have been in the tent with her, as only contestants may enter the scoring area. Would he have been there to ask "Did you sign your card?" as she left the tent, still within the ropes? He will be, from now on.
You said, "Quietly admonish her for breaking a rule that did not give her any advantage whatsoever, maybe assess a two stroke penalty local rule made up on the fly, massage Charlie Rymer's ego escape all media attention."
You are blatantly wrong. If she was only admonished, rather than DQ'ed as the punishment for the infractiobn called for, she would have been given a singularly distinct advantage over everyone else in the field... She would have been allowed to play when she had forfeited that right by her own inaction.
The reason for this outcry is because it is Michelle Wie and no one else. If this was just one of the journeyladys (journeymen sounds so wrong there) it would have barely been reported on.
Just like everyone else playing, she was given the same opportunity to enter the tournament in full knowledge of all of the rules, and likewise must suffer the same fate as every other player in this tournament would have if they had committed this same infraction...
That too is an important point. What she did wasn't a mistake, it was an infraction... a breaking of the rules.
In our state amateur tournaments, you turn your card into a staffer, not a volunteer, who always says "two signatures?" before he accepts it. It is a simple question that has helped a lot of players over the years.
Sorry, but your incorrect, it wasn't an "option." The rule is quite specific as to the penalty and it is a rule that doesn't allow for a committee to set it aside.
She HAD to be DQ'ed.
1) Wie's "error" wasn't nearly as big as that of the scoring people.
2) It was appropriate that she was DQ'd. But it's appalling that she was allowed to tee it up on Saturday.
3) Witter should be fined, demoted, or fired for her insulting comment. She is one of the voices of the LPGA and her remark was patronizing at best, humiliating at worst.
http://www.sj-r.com/statefarmclassic/x390635019/Transcript-of-Michelle-Wie-disqualification-press-conference
Still think she was being demeaning to Wie?
1. Michelle Wie is at fault, because if you want to be a professional golfer, you must follow the rules of golf. That's what you're paid to do. Your round of golf isn't over until you've confirmed that your scorecard is correct and you've signed it before returning it to the committee (i.e. before you've left the scoring area). That's the rule, case closed. Even Michelle Wie isn't immune from the rules, and she should've been DQ'ed as soon as she left the area. The volunteers screwed up by tracking her down after the fact, and that brings me to my second point:
2. The LPGA is at fault for the mismanagement of the scoring area. You need an official in there, not an unpaid volunteer who might be easily distracted or a little starstruck. It's is my job on the PGA TOUR to make sure this kind of debacle doesn't happen. There's too much at stake to not treat this area of the competition seriously. And I also have an opinion on the scorecard rules being "archaic", but I can't get into it here. You can read about them (and other PGA TOUR behind-the-scenes stories) on my blog at blog.caseyjonesgolf.com.
Casey, can you confirm that caddies are typically allowed into the socring trailer? I thought they were.
I've been a fan of Wie all along and supported her through all the troubles. However, I've about reached the end of my rope with this left-handed monkey wrench.
The way I see it a tour player really only has 2 KEY responsibilities EVERY day they show up for tournament play:
1. be on time for the tee-time.
2. sign your card.
How Michelle Wie ever got into Stanford I'll never know because by all appearances she is just flat-out stupid.
ES
A "professional" should know what he/she has to do.
I don't want to hear any of that"stupid rule" stuff, "stupid LPGA, stupid (any person, place or thing except Michelle Wee), stuff".
Stupid professional is the answer. But she is a kid, so someone else must be at fault, that's what you americans seem to like to say.