Rules Of Golf And Armchair Officials

As the saying goes “the times they are a changing”. And so it is with the game of golf. It used to be that decisions concerning rule violations were made on, and only on the golf course. Now with the increased television coverage, and the viewing advantages of high definition TV, a new community of armchair officials has emerged.

Examples of armchair officiating

Tiger Woods received a two stroke penalty for taking a improper drop on the 15th hole at the Masters last year. He would have been disqualified if it was not for Decision 33-7/4.5. I’ll discuss Decision 33-7/4.5 later in this article. A television viewer reported the violation.

Simon Dyson was disqualified from the BMW Masters because a television viewer reported that he tamped down a spike mark that was on the line of his putt. Here also a television viewer reported the violation.

Why this can happen

Most sporting events are officiated by officials who watch every play. Football games for instance. There’s enough officials on the field of play to apply the rules to all aspects of the game. The same is true with baseball, hockey, and basketball.

With golf tournaments on the other hand officials are called to situations where rulings are required. There is not an official assigned to each group. This leaves a good share of the integrity the game up the players, the caddies, and the spectators. The rules of golf state that when a spectator reports a rule violation. The report must be investigated by tournament officials. Now with the technological advances in television, TV audiences are spectators who can also report rule violations.

Because only top ranked players and the players listed on the leaderboard receive television coverage. These are the players who are the under the watchful eye of the armchair officials. The rest of the field are not seen on TV. That’s the way it is, but it does not seem fair.

Time is the problem

What if a player violates a rule, and he does not know he violated a rule. It happens. Now if no one catches that rule infraction, and play continues. That happens to. Now someone watching the tournament a home notices the rule violation and calls or emails the tournament to report the violation. This may lead to players being penalized on Saturday for a rule violation that they did not know they committed on Thursday.

Fortunately a player may no longer face automatic disqualification for signing a inaccurate scorecard. This is because of the addition of Decision 33-7/4.5, that I mentioned earlier. This decision allows the tournament officials to take a look at the rule violations with respect to the time it takes to act on the violations. Rule of golf state that signing a inaccurate scorecard warrants disqualification. With the addition Decision 33-7/4.5, if a player breaks a rule of golf and he does not know it, and he is not notified before he signs his scorecard, he may be accessed a two stroke penalty. But he will be able to continue to play.

That solves the DQ problem, but the fact that people watching golf on TV may affect the outcome of tournament play by reporting rule infractions which result in stroke penalties.

My opinion

No other sport allows anyone watching the event on TV to report rule violations. Why is that? It’s simple. How can anyone officiate a sporting event if they are not physically at the event? Further how can anyone officiate a sporting event without being a certified official?

Golf is the only game I can think of where the integrity of the game is partially policed by the participants. And it works. That’s because professional golfers are honest people. If the system works don not try to fix it.

The only suggestion I have to make is to not allow spectators to be able to report rule violations. If the USGA needs to furnish more officials to cover all the bases then that’s what needs to be done.

Conclusion

Needless to say golf is a great sport. It’s fun to play, and entertaining to watch. From what I see the golfers at the professional level would rather lose than cheat. As far as I see no sport has flawless officiating, and they probably never will. I just hope the the word controversy stays out of the golf world vocabulary. Lets try to keep it simple.

Sense I’m offering my opinion, I like wise welcome your opinion.

Authored by Darrell Dickinson

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