When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
Rex Hoggard helps us hone in on what will be the dilemma in modifying any rule related to scorecard DQ's. Talking to the USGA's Mike Davis, he writes:
Davis’ answer to the Tour was the same then that it is now – you can’t get there from here. At least not without opening a Pandora’s Box of unforeseen, and seen, problems.
“The whole reason the (Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, which governs the game everywhere else in the world) and USGA have rejected it is there are too many ramifications if you do that,” Davis said.
“If you gave Camilo a four-stroke penalty (instead of an early exit) the problem with that is you may all of a sudden mess up a cut. It could be the U.S. Amateur and you just played 36 holes of stroke play and your entire bracket (for match play) could get messed up. It would be illogical to make a change.”
Contrasting views expressed today in different parts of the world.
Nice reporting by Paul Casey to Tweet this week's Euro Tour declaration at the Royal Golf Club of Bahrain.
However, as Steve Elling notes on Casey's reporting and the likelihood he snapped the shot in the locker room, it's "where most players doubtlessly ignored it."
Has anyone played this Monty-design who can tell us why they would make this move?
I took a look at the hundreds of comments on the Padraig video at YouTube, then read the discussion here. What a contrast!
You guys and gals are the best.
First we learned the R&A is open to revisiting the scenario of disqualifications for signing incorrect cards that, at the time players signed them were not incorrect. Now, Mike Davis, Senior Director of Rules and Competitions, confirms to the USGA is "absolutely going to reopen" discussions with the R&A. The Padraig Harrington situation was the final straw.
"We're all bothered by what is a narrow set of circumstances where someone can get the facts right and still be disqualified. In Harrington's situation, he thought ball was replaced and only television is telling us otherwise. He knew the rules, he thought he did everything right, he just didn't know all the facts. So the USGA and R&A will open it up again, but we also have to make sure we don't do something that has domino effect."
Davis was speaking after just returning from R&A meetings in St. Andrews and said emails have already been exchanged between the USGA and R&A on ways to remedy the rule without creating unintended consequences, such as allowing players off the hook for not knowing the rules. Which was not the case in the Harrington scenario.
Forget Padraig, we need the rule changed on scorecard DQ's to protect the viewers at home who have been called every name in the book after the latest call-in violation.
Thankfully, most of the scribes cooled off after their initial tweets about the sheer horror of a viewer witnessing a violation and daring to point it out. They directed their emotions at the rule the USGA and R&A refuse to budge on.
I just want to know how you can replace a ball like that?
Padraig Harrington was DQ'd from Abu Dhabi's HSBC Classic for signing an incorrect card after a viewer spotted this violation after the card was signed.
Here's the video of the violation called in after his round:
But some good news: more practice time!
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
