Golf Needs a Gray Area

If anyone personifies the class, integrity and self-adherence to the rules of golf, it's the late great Bobby Jones. It was Jones who once famously called a penalty stroke on himself and the remarked, "You might as well praise a man for not robbing a bank."

Jones retired after his Grand Slam in 1930, and thereafter only played in his own tournament, the Masters, which he did until 1948 when he finished in 49^th place. 

Sixty years later, in 2008, amateur golfer Michael Thompson, who transferred to the University of Alabama after Tulane’s golf team was disbanded in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, did Jones proud when he penalized himself a stroke at the Masters when his ball oscillated on Augusta National’s 15^th green during his second round. Shaken up by the events that had just transpired, Thompson went on to bogey three of his final four holes, and missed the cut.

His self-penalization was lauded as honorable, a true display of sportsmanship and something Jones himself would’ve been quite proud of.

This week, golf has again been inundated with claims that it’s the one sport whose honor and integrity are left intact. Headlines have read, “Pro Golfer Hayes Penalizes Himself out of a Job,” after professional golfer J.P. Hayes essentially had himself disqualified from the second stage of Q-School by admitting to a rules official that he had used an unsanctioned Titleist golf ball. When it comes to non-conforming equipment on Tour, I believe there can be no debate. Even if said golf ball or club is approved by the USGA down the line, using a product that could be perceived as giving a player a competitive advantage on the course has no place in the game. Hayes was careless when he packed the prototype Titleist in his bag, and did the right thing by reporting his mistake to a rules official. He could’ve kept quiet, played his way into a 2009 Tour card and profited significantly from his silence. However, Hayes turned himself in and took his punishment in stride, no matter how difficult a pill it was to swallow.

During the 60-year span between Jones’ last Masters appearance and Thompson’s first, the authenticity, believability and trust the American public once associated with professional sports has gradually eroded like the shorelines on some of the world’s most famous golf courses.

The great home run chase that stole our attention in the summer of 1998, turned out to be an artificial long ball derby fueled by Androstene and anabolic steroids. The records and carefully-kept statistics diligently recorded by baseball historians have become almost irrelevant because of the pervasiveness of the steroids problem. And now, we have instant replay in the game. It’s hard for me to formulate an example more un-American than replay in baseball, but the adaptation was an effort to ensure correctness in the outcome of games. Perhaps golf should take a look at some of its more trivial rules, and partake in the practice of innovation; times change and a willingness to adapt could help golf become more of a mainstream sport.

Now I’m not proposing any major rule changes to the core practices essential to game, but I would suggest altering two regulations tantamount to technicalities that really have no impact on the competitive nature of the sport.

For starters, I would remove the silly rule that penalized Thompson and cost him a chance at playing all four rounds at Augusta National. Naysayers will point out that players can avoid this situation by not grounding their putters. However, I am almost positive that the delicate manner in which professionals place putter to ground wouldn’t cause the ball to shift positions unless that movement was caused by an unstable spot on the green surface itself. In other words, the greens at Augusta are quite slick and that’s why the ball shifted a few centimeters. So pick it up, remark and start over. While this practice may be a longstanding rule in golf, it really has no effect on the eventual score a player will post. Get rid of it. Do we really want a repeat of the scene at blustery Royal Birkdale when players approached putts with such reluctance it was like watching a frightened 7^th grade boy attempt to cross the aisle at a middle school dance? But it was understandable. Nobody wants to lose the Open Championship because their ball ‘oscillated’ in 40mph winds.

The second and silliest rule of all could have cost the LPGA a few sponsorships this offseason.  Does everyone remember when Michelle Wie left the scorer’s tent at the State Farm Classic without signing her scorecard. She was chased down by volunteers working in the tent, who pointed out that she hadn’t signed. But the damage was already done.

LPGA rule 6-6 states: A player is deemed to have returned her score card to the committee when she leaves the roped area of the scoring tent or leaves the scoring trailer.

To add insult to injury, Wie was allowed to play the third round because rules officials hadn’t yet been informed of the infraction as of Wie’s Saturday tee time. The prize money forfeited as a result of the disqualification cost Wie her LPGA card. Now, she’ll need a solid performance at LPGA Q-School to jump start her career and help her sport, which is in dire need of a superstar.

An incorrect or unsigned scorecard is almost always the product of an honest mistake when done so by professionals. We’re not talking about your drunk buddy who swears he had a 5 instead of an 11 on the par-5 12^th. With the amount of television cameras and tournament officials present at all times, a professional player may be the person least aware of his/her score throughout a round. If NBC Sports has Tiger Woods down for a 68, you’d better believe that’s what he shot. So have Tiger head into the scoring area, scan his fingerprint to make sure it’s not a robot that just pounded the field into submission and officially record his score. All of those supposed golf purists will certainly whine about this suggestion, but that’s because it doesn’t really affect them and it’s another fine opportunity to talk about the integrity of the game.

Imagine the Pittsburgh Steelers run roughshod through the AFC and slay whomever the NFC nominates as their best team in the Super Bowl, but just as Roger Goodell is about to hand over the Lombardi Trophy, it’s revealed that head coach Mike Tomlin forgot to give John Madden a high five after the game or he failed to check yes or no on his official “Did Your Team Win the Super Bowl” questionnaire. Signing your scorecard is that silly. With all of the technology we have, players shouldn’t be required to participate in such an arcane practice.

In a sports world riddled with corruption and greed, betting scandals, BALCO and more self-promotion than a Sarah Palin media blitz, golf is an outlier. The sport of gentleman is a statistical anomaly.

But when young players like Michael Thompson and Michelle Wie fall victim to technicalities, not rules, change is needed.

Golf needs a gray area, open to interpretation when common sense calls for a fresh approach.

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