"What I saw was very strange, very strange indeed."

Since there was so much complaining about coverage of Kenny Perry's FBR Open pre-shot routine, and since there is no video posted (yet), I've held off posting something on Richie Ramsay's rules incident Saturday. I had hoped video would be posted now, but we'll just have to rely on the accounts until someone at Sky puts it up on YouTube.

Here's a straightforward AP story, a more titillating tabloid report from Jim Black quoting rules official John Paramor.

Also, Mike Aitken reminds us that Ramsay has had other run-ins with the rules.

And I don't quite understand Douglas Lowe's logic here.

Let's make one thing clear: Richie Ramsay's integrity is not under question. He is an honest broker of the fairways and, yes, I would buy a second-hand car from him. A question mark, however, does hang over his knowledge of the rules of golf and, as they say in the best of legal circles, ignorance of the law is no excuse.

This Norman Dabell story recounts how the day after the incident in question, Ramsay did receive a one shot penalty for another violation.

Comments

[Pete Mitchell]

Those articles imply that Ramsay's one-stroke penalty was due to failure to mark the position of the ball when lifting it for relief from casual water (with interference from such). There is no such requirement.

It seems likely that the one-stroke penalty was for failure to mark when proceeding under the 'lift, clean, and place' Local Rule which he appears to have done after having taken relief from the casual water.

[chico]

Spot on Pete-thats exactly what happened.