Tag: Golf rules

Opinion: In a battle of golf’s rules versus golf’s spirit, the spirit took the loss this weekend

In golf, with its etiquettes, traditions and protocols, talk is about how the spirit of the game is as important as the letter of the law.

Golf may be the only sport that talks about “the spirit of the game.”

When a defensive end lays a late hit on a quarterback, no one talks about the spirit of football. The player accepts the penalty — if indeed a flag is thrown at all — and they move on with the game. We’ve seen flagrant fouls on basketball players that are called and even seen players ejected. But no announcers talk about “the spirit of basketball.”

Baseball does have its unwritten rules, but they seem more about whether to throw a 90 MPH fastball into someone’s ribs or thigh. And yes, there is some talk about steroid users and the Hall of Fame.

But it is in golf, with its etiquettes and traditions and protocols, where talk is about how the spirit of the game is as important as the letter of the law, the actual rules of the game. And that’s one of the great things about the sport. The spirit of the game does set the game apart from other sports because it is believed that there is something beyond the rules that makes the game special. It is the idea that sportsmanship walks hand in hand with the rules.

It is the calling of a penalty on yourself. It is the acknowledgment of great play by an opponent. It is seeing the opponent as just that, not as an enemy.

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The spirit of the game versus the rules of the game showed up again last weekend at the Farmers Insurance Open in San Diego, and it showed up because of a familiar figure in such battles, Patrick Reed. Reed won the tournament by an impressive five shots, but it was the debate over how Reed handled a rules decision in the third round that dominated talk. Note that this is about a rules decision, not a rules violation.

No violation, but not much vindication

In the end, Reed, a past Masters champion and the 2014 American Express winner, was judged by PGA Tour officials not to have violated the rules of golf concerning an embedded ball on the 10th hole. A rules official even verified for Reed that the ball was indeed embedded.

What Reed and PGA Tour rules officials couldn’t do was silence the questions over how Reed had violated the unwritten rules of the spirit of the game. He should have called a rules official early. He should have not put the ball in his hand as long as he did. He should have notified his playing partners. He should have just handled the matter with more delicacy than he did.

And there is the problem, at least for this weekend. By the rules of the game and by the judgment of tour officials, Reed was justified in his actions. By the spirit of the game and because of his past actions, Reed wasn’t given the benefit of the doubt among those who might have been looking for him to violate a rule anyway.

The uproar on television and social media — well, at least as much uproar as can be generated for a golf controversy – has lasted far longer than it would have in other sports. “Play on” is what other sports would say, the rules were followed. But even fellow players such as Xander Schauffele and Lanto Griffen used phrases like “I wouldn’t have put myself in that position,” or “it’s sad,” to describe the Reed situation.

The worst thing that you can be branded as in golf is being a cheater. But pretty close is being called someone who doesn’t abide by or respect the spirit of the game.

Reed walked away from his five-shot victory with $1.35 million, but with players and fans chatting about his behavior and at least one sports betting site providing refunds for gamblers who didn’t bet on Reed to win, something that speaks to the integrity of the game itself.

In that regard, it was a bad week for the spirit of the game, and that’s never a good thing.

Larry Bohannan is golf writer for the Palm Springs Desert Sun. He can be reached at (760) 778-4633 or larry.bohannan@desertsun.com. Follow him on Facebook or on Twitter at @Larry_Bohannan. 

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Lynch: Angry about Patrick Reed’s rules interpretation? Imagine if you had a bet on it.

Patrick Reed’s latest fiasco isn’t just bad for his reputation, it’s bad for the direction the PGA Tour is heading.

It’s almost awe-inspiring how Patrick Reed can slough off rules controversies with the unruffled disdain that one imagines Uday and Qusay greeted parking tickets in once-upon-a-time Baghdad.

Perhaps a man develops bulletproof confidence in the face of firing squads when he knows others are paid to throw themselves in front of the fusillade. How else to explain the scale of self-assurance that permits a professional golfer to palm his own ball, poke around in the ball mark, declare it was embedded, after it bounced, in 3-inch rough, with only cursory input from playing partners and none from rules officials, on live television, while leading a PGA Tour event.

The incident on the 10th hole at Torrey Pines during Saturday’s CBS broadcast lacked the clarity of Reed’s brazen bunker misadventure in the Bahamas in 2019. The video is inconclusive: viewers couldn’t see if Reed’s ball was in fact embedded, and the rules official wasn’t presented a fair opportunity to make that determination since Reed had already moved it. Less ambiguous is the growing sentiment that Patrick Reed’s relationship to the rules of golf mirrors that of a courtesan to her clothes—as something to occasionally be cloaked in for respectability, but otherwise an impediment to the conduct of business.

Eamon Lynch

Reed comes under intense social media scrutiny every time he wanders off the short grass, and that’s a tough reputation to live with in golf. Just ask Vijay Singh, whose three major wins never quite erased the stigma of an alleged cheating incident in Asia in 1985. Reed’s reputation is both unsurprising and wholly deserved. More worrisome is the fact that in granting excessive latitude to players around the rules— in both wording and enforcement — the PGA Tour is creating a situation that is untenable with its new reality.

Like most majors sports leagues, the PGA Tour has announced several partnerships in the betting space, eager to secure its share of a lucrative revenue stream. It’s smart business. The scope for gambling on golf is almost limitless — on winners, on hole scores, on shot results. And the wealth of ShotLink performance data available on every player in every situation is a bettor’s dream.

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But there are no ShotLink metrics for integrity, and just one seed of doubt can be corrosive in sports gambling. Folks who lose bets often cry foul, as an hour spent at any table in Vegas will illustrate, but the bedrock upon which betting in golf must stand is transparency, a firm belief among punters that everything is above board, that scores have standing, that rules are equitably applied. It’s difficult to reconcile that fundamental expectation with a longstanding rules culture that codifies generous out-clauses like “intent.”

The PGA Tour simply needs rules enforcement that is not considered overly deferential to players and not easily dismissed as too opaque to be squared with gambling. Patrick Reed is just a recurring symptom of a greater disease.

In his post-round interviews, Reed declared himself exonerated and said he acted appropriately. That’s a generous reading of the situation, and generosity isn’t often conferred on guys with a locker room reputation one notch above a card shark.

That’s really the crux of things: when the PGA Tour is perceived as bestowing the benefit of the doubt on a player manifestly undeserving of the privilege, the reputation ultimately bruised is that of the Tour, not the player.

In these early days of sports gambling, golf just can’t afford to have bettors turn away, convinced that the sport cannot be wagered on with complete confidence that the outcome will be fair. Acting decisively against players who seem indifferent to the rules is a pretty good strategy to avoid that.

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Patrick Reed on Farmers Insurance Open controversy: ‘The rules officials said we did it absolutely perfectly’

“When all comes push and shove we felt like we did the right thing and the rules officials said we did absolutely perfectly.”

Patrick Reed’s controversial move on the 10th hole at the Farmers Insurance Open to move his ball before consulting with a PGA Tour official had the sports world talking on Saturday.

Here is what Reed said to CBS Sports’ Amanda Balionis after his round:

REED: So the first thing we do is when we don’t see it bounce in the group doesn’t see a bounce, you ask the volunteer whoever’s closest to that golf ball where it was and you know the volunteer said no the ball did not bounce and therefore I, when that happened, I looked at my groups those guys she didn’t see a bounce either so I’m gonna mark this ball and you know see if it’s embedded and you know, once I marked it the first thing I wanted to do was make sure got the ball out of my hand because you know, if you don’t want to clean it or anything because you don’t know if it’s embedded yet and when I put my finger down there, and I felt like it has broken ground, first thing you do is you call rules official because you know, you want the rules official to come over to make sure that it is.

When the rules official came over said it yes, no this … this ball has broken the plane and with no one seeing the ball bounce and that’s what we all saw and so because of that, you know, the rules official’s like well since no one else is seen it bounce, of seven people, therefore you get free drop and free relief and at that point, you know, we just go with what the rules officials said and also with what the volunteers and what we see because that’s one of those things I will out there, we can’t see everything and when that happens, you know, you have to go by with what the volunteers say with what the rules officials say and, you know, when all comes push and shove we felt like we did the right thing and the rules officials said we did it absolutely perfectly and with that being said you know we moved on just continue playing.

BALIONIS: Hindsight’s 20-20. If you had to go back do you pick up the ball before the rules official is there?

REED: Yes, because you sit there and when you have three players including yourself three caddies and a volunteer that’s within five yards of that golf ball and no one says it bounced, you’re gonna mark it in check see if the ball’s embedded, you know, that’s what every player does if the ball if no one sees a bounce they see that.

You know looks like it’s broken the plane, the ground you mark the ball and you pick it up first and then when you see that is embedded that’s when you always call rules official over no matter what you’re doing to take the drop to make sure you’re doing the drop correctly.

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R&A clears Lexi Thompson of rules violation at Royal Troon

Lexi Thompson was cleared of a rules violation on the 16th hole at Royal Troon during the first round of the Women’s British Open.

The R&A has released a statement regarding Lexi Thompson’s actions on the 16th hole in the first round of the AIG Women’s British Open at Royal Troon. As Thompson set up to hit her second shot on the par 5, she used her club to poke at a tuft of grass situated behind her ball.

The R&A looked into the incident, which was televised on Thursday, and released the following statement:

Yesterday, as part of its normal TV review procedures, The R&A viewed Lexi Thompson’s actions prior to playing her second shot at the 16th hole in round one of the AIG Women’s Open. 

Following a discussion between Chief Referee David Rickman and the player prior to her signing her scorecard it was determined that, although the player had moved a growing natural object behind her ball, it had returned to its original position. 

Therefore, the lie of the ball was not improved and there was no breach of Rule 8.1.

Thompson went on to birdie the 16th hole, her only birdie in an opening round of 78.

 

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Rules of golf: 10 biggest controversies of the decade

Tiger Woods, Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, and Lexi Thompson were all engulfed in some of the decade’s biggest Rules of Golf controversies.

There was no shortage of options for making this list.

Plenty of first-name only star power — Phil, Tiger, DJ and Lexi — were among the biggest offenders.

That’s because the Rules of Golf are complicated, and despite revisions and clarification and an overhaul that went into effect in 2019, there are still regular occurrences where the punishment doesn’t seem to fit the crime plus plenty of room for ambiguity.

Here are the 10 biggest Rules controversies that sparked debate in this decade:

10. Haotong Li, 2019 Dubai Desert Classic

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - JANUARY 27: Haotong Li of China takes his tee shot on hole one during Day Four of the Omega Dubai Desert Classic at Emirates Golf Club on January 27, 2019 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images)
Haotong Li at the 2019 Omega Dubai Desert Classic in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images)

In the final round, Haotong Li canned a birdie putt on the 18th hole to apparently finish in third place. But as ESPN’s Lee Corso would say, not so fast, my friends. Li’s caddie violated one of the new Rules of Golf that went into effect in 2019 – Rule 10.2b – “once the player begins taking a stance for the stroke, and until the stroke is made, the player’s caddie must not deliberately stand on or close to an extension of the line of play behind the ball for any reason.” The two-stroke change dropped Li to a tie for 12th place and cost him the equivalent of about $100,000.

As a result of this ruling and a similarly harsh interpretation of the Rule against Denny McCarthy at the Waste Management Phoenix Open in February, a clarification was released addressing issues with the Rule. In short, it clarified what it meant to “deliberately” stand behind the player and provided more guidance for when a player actually has “begun taking his or her stance.”

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