"In what has to be one of the craziest rulings I’ve ever witnessed on the PGA Tour..."
Bob Weeks says the latest bizarre rules incident involving grounded clubs and intent was driven by viewer phone calls, despite the claims of tournament officials otherwise. That it happened to Mike Weir at the Canadian Open only adds to the intrigue.
Yesterday, Weir was in a strange situation on the 18th hole. After placing his ball on a good lie on the edge of a divot (lift, clean and cheat, don’t ya know) in the fairway and getting ready to hit his shot, the ball toppled over into the hole. Initially Weir was assessed a one-shot penalty. Then later, after reviewing the tape of the situation, he was cleared and his par was turned into a birdie.
Then today, after he was called off the course by the rain delay, officials told him they wanted to review it again. Remarkably, the four was turned back into a five because Weir may have cause the ball to move.
So what would cause the Tour to suddenly re-visit the situation after it had been finalized the night before? Television viewers, that’s who. According to two different sources, the Tour received a flurry of phone calls form arm-chair rules officials who lambasted the decision that was made after seeing the situation on television. They referred to Rule 18-2A which says something about the player being guilty until proven innocent in such a situation. Now the only reason these folks with too much time on their hands called in was because Weir was being given wall-to-wall coverage by CBS. If he’d been some lower-profile golfer, the situation would never have been on tv and he might have been cleared. Of course, it also works the other way -- if he wasn't on tv, he might not have had the initial help which gave him the birdie.
Monday, July 27, 2009 at 08:58 AM
Reader Comments (13)
"The ruling involved Weir's second shot on the 18th hole Saturday.
Weir's ball moved before he played the shot, but he was unsure whether he had addressed the ball or caused it to move. After calling for a ruling, he replaced the ball in its original location and took a one-stroke penalty.
Before Weir signed his scorecard, the penalty stroke was rescinded after he and the rules committee reviewed video and determined it was inconclusive whether he caused the ball to move. On Sunday, additional video was reviewed, and Weir again assessed himself a one-stroke penalty for causing the ball to move, even though it was still inconclusive whether he addressed the ball.
"Even though I don't think I did, I guess there's that gray-area possibility I could have," Weir said. "So with that, I didn't feel comfortable myself not taking it."
Weir wasn't disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard because it was right when he signed it. "If a committee makes a decision or an error we can certainly correct it," said Dean Ryan, a Royal Canadian Golf Association rules official."
http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/news/story?id=4357432
It is easy to imagine a ball rolling off the lip of a divot as the weight of the ball presses the grass down, or a slight breeze blows it away.
Rule 18-2A needs to be visited for fairness because it says in effect that the player has to show that HE or SHE did not cause it to move, and will otherwise be penalized. I could state cases of balls moving on putting greens after being cleaned and marked by the player, where if the ball moves after the marker is lifted, there is no penalty and the player plays the shot from where the ball came to rest.
If the lift, clean and cheat rule was not in place, the ball would not have moved.
When this rule is being used, it is no different than marking your ball on the putting surface.
BTW, if he had played the ball from where it rolled to (into the divot) he would have made the score he ended up with (par 5) so I guess all is well.
But seriously, what does it say when the play is reviewed by officials - this was not a case where it originally went unnoticed - and then their decision is superseded by arm-chair guy at home? Were the officials not familiar with the rule?
Yes, I am Canadian and proud of it.
BTW, Mike did not grow a conscience overnight, if you remember the incident, it was Mike that informed the officials that the ball had moved in the first place and on the day it happened, they applied the one stroke penalty, and then in the review trailer removed the penalty before Mike signed his card.
The cell phone caller got the rules committee to change their minds which is shameful.
As far as saying he was already cheating with the lift clean and place in effect, it was in effect for the entire field, not just Canadians eh
Unfortunately the USGA site doesn't provide a definition for "grounded the club," but the definition of addressing the ball is "A player has "addressed the ball" when he has taken his stance and has also grounded his club (except in a hazard...)."
If he's gonna play lift, clean, and cheat maybe next time he won't give himself such a peachy lie on the edge of a divot his ball can roll into at the slightest whim.