Posted on 10/18/2005 10:51:01 PM PDT by nickcarraway
But before commenting further, let's assume that I am watching a Bear-Packers game on TV and happen to see a tackle line up in the neutral zone on a TD play that won the game, and no penalty is called. I immediately get on the phone with the NFL office in New York and testify that the Packers clearly cheated on the play and that the officials should review the tape and the Packers should be disqualified.
Of course it's ridiculous. No fan or "outside observer" in any capacity should be able to demand or instigate a DQ. To do so would lead to total chaos.
In a golf match (stroke play or match play) the only people who should be allowed to call a penalty on a golfer should be the player themselves, their fellow competitor.
Now let's take a look at the rules. If you think you KNOW the rules of golf I suggest you go to the USGA website and take the rules quiz they have made available. You can even take it at different skill levels???? Try reading between the lines here.
The rules are so complicated that even the USGA gives you simple questions, unless you'd like to try solving one where a wild animal eats your ball and disappears down a hole. I defy anyone on these pages to consistently answer EVERY rules question correctly. It is impossible.
I play with a professional friend who served as a rules official for the Ryder Cup. He says it was the hardest job he ever performed in golf. But let's take a look at how the rules are written.
Several golf writers during the past year have written tongue-in-cheek articles about the rules, primarily making fun of the term "The Committee". If you don't know who "The Committee" is just start reading the rules and the the Local Rules addendum, and you'll also be wondering who this mysterious amorphous body is.
Let's take a look at some of the strange inconsistencies of the rules. Let's take Match play. The rules of golf clearly state that the "hole" is not completed until the ball is "holed." Except lo and behold, if you're feeling generous in Match play you can "give" that 3 footer to your pal to make him feel better. That's right, he can just pick up his ball off the green and the hole is over. But wait a minute, you can't just pick your ball up off the green or through-the-green except under the Rules of Golf!
So the USGA says you need to hole your putt to complete the hole being played, but, hey, we'll just call it Match play and you can give those gimmee's to your pals so they won't think less of you for making them putt out!
Hit in a a yellow staked H2O hazard and you can go back as far as you like to replay the shot. But now a red staked LH2O, well, we'll give you two club lengths. Now technically, you are supposed to the club that you would replay the shot with for measuring, but everyone grabs the driver because of it's length and there they go.
Talk about arcane. Spike marks. Not so much a problem today but for a long time they deflected many a putt. Oh you can fix a ball mark or remove leaf litter etc, but don't you dare touch a tiny spike mark.
My point is not that Wie should have been given a break. My point is that many of the rules are based on "Centuries Old" nonsense that has has been written in although for the life of them, I'm sure many golfers can't figure out why.
No the point is that they will bend on golf balls, shafts, club head design, etc., but not the complexity and stupidity of rules that have been around so long their musty and need to be changed.
How many of you know that you are not responsible for totaling your score??? You are actually told NOT to tally your score. "The Committee" does that for you. You are only responsible for indicating the "correct" score for each hole.
The other maidens is that you are the "Marker" for your fellow competitor. You are supposed to keep both his score and yours. That's why they have the tear-away strip on the cards so you can review what he has indicated for you. My professional tells me it is bad form to ask your fellow competitor what score he made. You're supposed to watch his every shot and add in any penalties he might have incurred, all the time trying to concentrate on your own game and score.
If golf is such a game of "HONOR" then why do we have to keep the other guy's score??? Isn't he supposed to be honest and play by the rules?????
My final point is that by allowing a casual observer to call penalties (in any sport) in golf is insane. Someone should have Bamberger take the USGA rules quiz at the EXPERT LEVEL and see if he can score 100%. If not, he should shut up and get off the course. After all, irate golfers have been known to throw clubs!!!!!!!!!!!
If he were alive today, Roberto DiVicenzo would agree with you. A scorecard cost him the 1967 Masters.
That aside, "not nearer the hole" is pretty straightforward and patently obvious as to why it's a rule. ;)
The outrage in this case has nothing to do with the antiquated rules of golf, but that the result of a competition was affected because 1) an outside party filed a complaint, 2) the complaint was not raised in a timely manner, and 3) they had to use GPS to determine that she was closer!!! On that last point, if the golfer has no reasonable way of knowing, given the tools they are allowed to have on the course (and GPS -- or any other device to allow you to determine your actual distance from the hole -- is most certainly not allowable equipment), then barring an on-the-spot ruling saying that it was closer and needed re-dropping, then why penalize her later?
"No bother talking to you about this. The idea is NOT to allow the player to PLACE the ball in a perfect position to hit it .......... that is why they call for a "drop".
The distance is from the flag is incidental, just so it is no closer to the hole."
It just seems like there is an excessive anal rentention here. Did she use a different club? or could she have dropped the ball in the same rough, several more feet away, latteraly? If the ball had to be in the identical space as the previous one, which is what you are insinuating, then there wouldn't be such a thing as a drop. She was allowed to move the ball lateraly (left or right, in relation to the hole) as long as it was equidistant to the hole and in a relative lie?
I'm not saying that this is a stupid rule (although I am now) I am saying that to come back days later and to OVER penalize Wie is absurd as going back however many years it is to overturn the . . . .it was a stanford game I think when the "band marched on" in footbal. Or to take away the game from the Sox after the AJP dropped third strike. Wie, probably, did not DELIBERATELY sign a false scorecard.
After all this reason I offered (prior to the begining of this post:) about the "drop" and such, let me get to the the nit.
the majority of golfs rules are stupid, and deliberately arbitrary, and elitist. Other than the joy of walking in a beautifuly maintained setting like a golf course on a warm day, I see no real reason to golf.
Well some people really love the game:
*****
Four golfers who like to gamble a little wind up in the same foursome. The pot builds throughout the day until they reach the 18th green, where Charlie has a chance to putt for dough. If he makes his 10-foot putt, he wins $200.
Charlie lines up his putt, but just as he's about to take his stance, a funeral procession begins passing by on the road that runs alongside the 18th hole.
Charlie steps away from his ball, sets down his putter, takes off his hat and places it over his heart, and waits for the funeral procession to completely pass. Once all the cars in the funeral procession have passed, Charlie picks up his putter and begins lining up the putt again.
"Wow," one of his opponents says. "That was the most touching thing I have ever seen. You've got a makeable putt for $200, yet you stopped and paid your respects.
You really are something."
"Well," Charlie says, "we were married for 25 years."
*****
LOL. By the way, some of the rules are a little anal, as you suggested.
I agree. And I recall how Wie lied about another golfer, and ever since I have had no respect for her or her father.
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