Do we not have a running 2017 golf thread?

I don’t care if he was right. He made himself part of the story and that is unacceptable. And it was crazy that golf allowed TV viewers to influence officials’ decisions. Glad that’s over with. I don’t normally agree with JC about anything but he’s spot-on with this issue.

 

No. But I know enough rules people on all the tours and I'd call one in a second if I saw something that I know was wrong. I've cut my golf viewing by 90 percent over the last few years. When golf is on TV, I'm probably doing something else at the same time. I wish the governing bodies all the luck in the world with this, but I don't think this stands a chance in hell that this works.

 

Why would you call?

 

Bystanders at events can point out issues. TV is just a further extension of that audience base.

It keeps golfers honest, aware of all the rules, and preserves the integrity of the game.

But, with the development of HDTV, tiny ball movements or ball misplacements have made these call in reports ridiculous. They are calling in things that a golfer can't see. A golfer is concentrating on their next shot, not staring at a ball for 30 seconds to see if it moves a tiny bit.

I'm all for banning the call ins. Particularly because my first example above - a bystander would have to get an official's or marshal's attention right then and there and resolve it. Not 45 minutes later, not a day later. The Lexi situation was absolutely ridiculous and it was the train wreck that needed to happen to put an end to this. Unfortunately at her expense.

 

The Lexi situation was the worst.

 

They are the hall monitors in high school.

 

Part of this is on golf itself, and its marketing idea that all golfers (there are no golf fans who don't play) are brothers and sisters within the sport with equal standing within the community. This is laughably untrue. I am an old fart who plays the game and watches on TV for fun. Lexi Thompson, Justin Thomas et. al. are superbly conditioned and skilled athletes competing in a high-stakes professional sport. Letting people like me influence the outcome of the sport was insane.

 

Again, I suppose it doesn't matter that she was in the wrong. She didn't re-mark her ball a millimeter off. It was a good half-inch, which is more than enough to avoid a spike mark. She deserved the first two-stroke penalty. Not the additional two strokes.

 

Since the game was discovered 400 and whatever years ago, the people who run the game made it perfectly clear that any and all information regarding the action of players, regardless of where it comes from, is permissible in order to maintain a level playing field. Agree or disagree with that, the game has always been played with that understanding.

 

And here's why that matters: teams sports are on a fixed playing field or court, with crews of officials, referees, umpires, etc., who see every second, play, ball, strike, whatever. Golf is played over hundreds of acres, often with nebulous boundaries, with contestants spread out over all 18 holes. It's impossible to have an official watch every shot on every hole by every player (144 in most pro fields).
That's why players police themselves and call violations on themselves but people being human (not knowing they broke a rule or intentionally doing it) there is the additional safeguard golf governing bodies used of accepting input from those on the outside (spectators, TV viewers). They now believe they will have the capability to assign officials to watch the broadcasts and take care of that with no outside input required. Great, if they think they can pull it off.
Word of caution: This only applies to competition that is broadcast or streamed. They still won't have video on every shot on every hole by every player, so they contestants remain responsible for policing themselves.
Those who complained about golf allowing fan input are the same people who think you should be able to yell in a guy's backswing "because you can yell when a guy is pitching or is shooting free throws." That's trying to make golf a team sport, which it is not. And I always wondered why team sports fans with only a casual or no knowledge of golf always try to equate the two, or demand golf be more like team sports. I think in terms of integrity, honor and a level playing field, the team sports have more to learn from golf than the other way around (steroids, corked bats, spitballs, deflated footballs, stealing signs, beanball brawls, and coaching guys to get away with holding or traveling).

 

My largest problem with the call in ref is that golf, like any other sport, is a human game played by humans. Sport means human mistakes, and a Lexi thing or Woods, is a human error, witnessed by playing partners and rules officials on site. If they don't catch it, let it go. I'm not advocating cheating, but i don't want 100% accuracy at the cost of the loss of flow of the event, especially by call in refs. People need to accept human error. Was it an honest mistake or cheating? Best judge is the playing partners. If they don't call it it's likely a human mistake. Let it go.