"I know the Rules of Golf. What [Ahn] did was not right.

Ryan Ballengee finds the mysteriously missing caddie for Shi Hyan Ahn. Tim Hegna tells a very different story than the one peddled by Ahn's agent and LPGA officials.

"I saw the ball and told [Ahn], 'This is a Titleist 6. It's the wrong ball. You should tell Chung.'"

Hegna said Ahn didn't acknowledge what Hegna said, though he had the expectation that she would and act on it. In fact, she said nothing at all on the green. The players finish out and go to the scoring tent. All three sign their cards neither Ahn nor Chung taking the penalty.

As they were heading back toward the clubhouse, Hegna says Ahn told him, "Be here at 6:40 tomorrow and don't say anything to anyone."

Hegna went to the hotel and had his dinner, adding, "I didn't know how to handle [what just happened] at the time." When he got back to his room, his roommates told him that he and his player had been disqualified. Hegna said he was pleased to hear the news, but said he does not know who turned them into the LPGA scoring officials. After parting from his player, he does not know if Ahn told Chung.

Comments

[pasaplayer]

Hegna sounds like a good guy and a good caddy. Assuming that to be true, I certainly hope his two loops with Ahn don't cause any negative blowback for him.

[carnaptious and camsteerie]

Indeed pasaplayer. What a horrible situation for a caddie to be put in.

[fatgoalie]

He sounds like he was afraid to do what he knew he needed to do.
Tough position to be in, but most of the stories coming out of this sure
look bad for these two players

[Erik J. Barzeski]

I don't want to blame the caddie at all, but at the same time if he had looked at the ball in the fairway and noticed that his player was about to hit the wrong one, this wouldn't be a story at all. Not his responsibility in the end, but I wonder if he wishes he'd looked at the ball before being asked to clean it on the putting green.

[Ky Laffoon's Ghost]

There is not a competitive golfer at any level who would not have identified her/his ball from the moment she walked up to it in the fairway. That is why the marks are *always* somewhere near both brand stamps and numbers and maybe the side stamp, too. At the very least, at the moment she marked the ball on the green she would have known without a freakin' doubt and would have corrected the problem then and there. Unless something else was going on, that is. Maybe the caddie does "wish" he had done more, but that is absolutely and completely irrelevant.

[Wayne]

It all sounds bizarre. You hit the wrong ball from the fairway, then walk to the green and hit the wrong ball again? I'm assuming this is what happened. Two players not noticing on three shots each. And if they did notice on the green, did they just give each other a knowing nod? Did they toss their balls to their caddies for cleaning? This is really turning into a "what did they know and when did they know it" type of deal. But I sense bad news coming for these players.

[MRP]

They cheated plain and simple. They are a disgrace to the game.

[Lei meg]

Is it at all in the realms of possibility that the LPGA - as this caddie states - is not playing in accordance with the Rules. If so - and only if it is true - then the LPGA is truly out of bounds here and will lose the respect it has as an organisation. How might the many outstanding women players feel about what is reported. The new Commissioner has to get on top of this.

Lei meg

[Golden Bell]

Hegna should have gone to the scoring tent to make sure the infraction was reported, both to protect his player from disqualification, and to protect the field. From this narrative, it appears he did not. Big mistake on his part.

[Stephen W]

I suspect this matter is now dead and buried as commercial interests will always override ethics. The Asian market is highly important to golf's financial safeguarding and the authorities would not allow any distractions which might reflect badly on future business interests. Shame but there it is, rightly or (certainly in most peoples' eyes) wrongly.

[Erik J. Barzeski]

Golden Bell, the "mistake" would have to be corrected before the players left the putting green. If he had accompanied his player to the tent (where caddies are not allowed), it would have already been too late.

They were DQed. That's the Rules of Golf. What the discussion is now about is what the Rules of the LPGA are...

[CBell]

Or, in the absence of a relevant LPGA rule, what the appropriate response should be.

[carnaptious and camsteerie]

StephenW ... I sure hope you're wrong about that. Golf is a game that's all too susceptible to cheating. If collusion between the two players can be proved, they should be dealt with VERY severely. That would send out the right message to new world golf newbies that integrity underpins the very nature of this game and nothing less than that standard will be tolerated.

There's currently a brouhaha going on over match-fixing in cricket, another game which is highly susceptible to such shenanigans. Spectators don't want to pay a lot of money for a ticket to watch a bunch of cheats. Still waiting to see what's going to happen with that one but it seems to me, the only way to stamp this out is through a lifetime ban from the sport.

The lpga must have rules to cover improper behaviour. Seems to me that, as things stand at the moment, it's just as much on trial as these two players.

[digsouth]

Cricket is cool. I have no idea what is going on, but I like the inaction/ action! Seriously. I am not a football fan, either kind, I'm a baseball guy.

Much better than curling. ;)

digsouth

[carnaptious and camsteerie]

digsouth, there's hope for you yet! Cricket, that quintessentially english game, is very cool and I say that as both a scot and a female!

[rt626]

I believe the two players were disqualified per the rules of golf.

What else is needed -- a jail term at hard labor or a stoning to "teach them a lesson"?

[Smails]

cheats-ban 'em for a year.

[RickABQ]

I notice both teed it up today (9/10). Is this going to be an investigation that takes so long everyone will forget about it (especially if the press does), or did the case close and I didn't hear about it?