AJGA

If there is one thing that all amateur golfers, juniors included, can learn from professionals, it is most certainly that knowing the Rules of Golf can help or hurt in a big way. Unfortunately, more times than not, learning this lesson comes at the expense of the player. The PGA and European Tours were only a few weeks into the season before two of golf’s top players were leaving the tournament early. During the first round of the PGA Tour’s Hyundai Tournament of Champions, Camilo Villegas found himself in violation of Rule 23-1. The Rules of Golf state that “when a ball is in motion, a loose impediment that might influence the movement of the ball must not be removed.” Villegas clearly violated this Rule when he casually removed a divot while his ball was rolling back to his feet after a poor pitch. He should have been penalized two strokes for the infraction but the incident went unnoticed. Seems like a harmless mistake, add two strokes and move on right? Not in this case.

Since Villegas was unaware of his mistake, he failed to include the incurred two stroke penalty before returning his scorecard. In fact, the Rules infraction was not brought to the attention of the PGA Tour Rules Committee until a T.V. viewer called and informed them of Villegas’ infraction sometime later. Subsequently, since Villegas failed to include the two additional strokes on the 15th hole, he was later disqualified for returning a score lower than what he actually made on that hole. Fair or unfair? It is the burning question that has the golf world turned upside-down.

Two weeks later at the European Tour’s Abu Dhabi Championship, Padraig Harrington encountered a similar situation. This time Harrington accidentally moves his ball in play while picking up his ball marker from the putting green. Harrington would have not been penalized for the infraction if he had replaced the ball to its original spot since it was directly attributable to the marking or replacing his golf ball (Rule 20-1).  However, since Harrington neglected to replace his golf ball to the original spot Harrington He incurred the general penalty under Rule 18. Just like Villegas, Harrington was unaware of his infraction or informed of the violation until after he had returned his score card upon the completion of his round. This time, it was a viewer’s e-mail that would bring Harrington’s rules violation to light, and like Villegas, resulted in his disqualification.

Both violations led to major debates about whether or not viewers should be able to phone or e-mail in violations that occur during a round. The violations have also caused the USGA and R&A to examine how they will handle these situations in the future. Should a golfer be disqualified if they were unaware of an infraction that occurred until after signing their scorecard? Has viewer interaction gone too far? Every sport is implementing more and more technology to get the rule right so is golf going to be the exception? Do we want to take a way technology so we do not get the right ruling?