Golf rules may change, but touring pros seek a different tweak
As the golf world collects feedback on proposed rules changes that could revolutionize the game if adopted as written by 2019, a significant rules tweak that will resonate with professional golfers and tournament organizers went into effect in April.
Its arrival, aimed at limiting the scope of video reviews in assessing penalties at professional golf events, will not change the outcomes of three major championships in the past 11 months impacted by such reviews on the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour. In all three tournaments, final-round rules infractions triggered by video reviews altered scorecards and, in two of the cases, probably determined the winners of the events.
But a new statute, Decision 34-3/10, defines two standards for rules committees to limit the use of video reviews at events like this week’s Dean & DeLuca Invitational at Colonial Country Club. The tweak has caught the attention of Michael Tothe, Colonial’s tournament director.
As an organizer of Fort Worth’s annual PGA Tour stop, Tothe said he hopes he never oversees an event that includes a four-stroke penalty assessed the tournament leader in the final round, which became a reality for LPGA competitor Lexi Thompson en route to a playoff loss April 2 at the ANA Inspiration in Rancho Mirage, Calif. The Thompson situation triggered an April 25 rules tweak, put in place by the U.S. Golf Association and the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, golf’s ruling bodies.
Thompson’s four-stroke penalty, stemming from an improper ball mark in the third round and brought to light by a TV viewer, opened the door to a victory for So Yeon Ryu in the LPGA’s first major championship of 2017. Tothe winced when asked how he would feel about dealing with a similar situation at Colonial.
“I would hate that. I think I would have thrown up,” Tothe said. “It just would have been horrible because what ultimately happens is, you don’t celebrate your champion. You talk about, ‘That was the year Lexi did this or that.’”
Colonial came close to a similar situation in 2012 when Zach Johnson failed to properly replace his ball mark at the 18th green in his Sunday round and was assessed a two-stroke penalty. Johnson held a three-stroke lead at the time and self-reported the penalty after being alerted to his oversight by caddie Damon Green and a PGA Tour rules official.
In the post-round news conference, Johnson joked about his gaffe and his one-stroke margin of victory.
“I got lucky,” Johnson said in 2012. “I’m glad no one took a gun at the end and shot me because of my stupidity.”
Thompson was less fortunate on the title front. She learned of her penalty — two strokes for improperly replacing her marked ball before a putt, plus two strokes for signing an incorrect Saturday scorecard — after a TV viewer alerted tournament officials during the Sunday round to a procedural gaffe that occurred the previous day. Thompson’s oversight, which involved placing the ball a fraction of an inch closer to the hole than allowed while removing her ball mark on the green, went undetected by her Saturday playing partner, as well as a rules official assigned to the group.
But when a tournament lasts 72 holes, the Rules of Golf permit a player to be punished for a violation that occurs at any time throughout the four-day event. Whether that violation can be triggered by a call from a TV viewer is now open for discussion.
In making its April rules change, the USGA and R&A placed limits on video evidence that cannot be reasonably seen by the naked eye and cited the need to rely on “reasonable judgment” to determine a specific location when applying the rules. Left unaddressed: whether to allow TV viewers to call in possible infractions and whether to penalize a player for signing a scorecard that later is deemed incorrect because of a rules violation the player was not aware of while signing the card.
Those two unaddressed topics were at the core of Thompson’s four-stroke penalty, assessed April 2, for a ball-marking gaffe on the 17th green of her round the previous day. In a statement announcing the new rule, USGA executive director/CEO Mike Davis said: “This important first step provides officials with tools that can have a direct and positive impact on the game. We recognize there is more work to be done. Advancements in video technology are enhancing the viewing experience for fans but can also significantly affect the competition. We need to balance those advances with what is fair for all players when applying the rules.”
Toward that end, Davis said a working group of competitors from multiple professional tours will meet with the two governing bodies to create a “comprehensive review of broader video issues that arise in televised competitions, including viewer call-ins.”
Thompson’s penalty, which she learned of while heading to the 13th tee in the final round, turned a two-stroke lead into a two-stroke deficit and drew protests from fellow touring pros who believe TV viewers should not have that much power in determining the outcome of events.
After the penalty was announced during the final-round telecast, 14-time major champion Tiger Woods posted this tweet on his account, @TigerWoods: “Viewers at home should not be officials wearing stripes. Let’s go @Lexi, win this thing anyway.”
The next day, Masters competitor Rickie Fowler addressed the Thompson situation from the dais at Augusta National Golf Club. He called on golf’s rulemaking entities to prevent armchair referees from impacting the outcome of professional tournaments by reporting perceived infractions from off-site locations.
“There’s no question it should be ended. I don’t think you could find one player that would say otherwise,” Fowler said. “Things should be handled the day of. There shouldn’t be anyone outside of the [tournament] officials being able to make this call.”
Other players joined the chorus, questioning the loopholes within a review process that has impacted three of the sport’s highest-profile events since the final putt fell at last year’s Colonial. During the 2016 season, a video review cost Dustin Johnson a one-stroke penalty (ball moved by a wind gust and not replaced) during the final round of his victory at the U.S. Open. Anna Nordqvist received a two-stroke penalty for improperly grounding a club in a bunker, per video review, during the second hole of a three-stroke playoff at the U.S. Women’s Open.
Nordqvist lost the playoff to McKinney’s Brittany Lang. Both of those penalties were assessed on the same day of the infraction, but Fowler and others believe the reliance on replay has its drawbacks.
“We’ve seen some stuff in the past year that is not making the game look very good at all,” Fowler said.
Thompson said she never intentionally broke a rule, appreciates the support from fellow touring pros and hopes some good can come out of a situation she called “kind of a nightmare.”
“Any rule that’s made to make the game more simple, I think, is great for the game of golf,” Thompson said.
From all indications, additional change is coming on the rules front. Officials at the USGA and R&A are accepting feedback from golfers in regard to sweeping rules changes outlined in March that could become official Jan. 1, 2019.
Among the biggest potential changes: reducing the number of rules from 34 to 24 and eliminating or modifying penalties on 36 categories of rulings. Addressed topics would include accidental movement of balls on greens, greater flexibility in repairing damaged greens and measures aimed at speeding up the pace of play.
The primary pace-of-play proposals: cutting back the maximum search time for a lost ball from five to three minutes and placing a 40-second limit on players to make their stroke once positioned to do so. Most tour players favor the changes.
Ian Poulter, a frequent Colonial competitor in recent years, offered this post about the proposed rules changes on his Twitter account, @IanJamesPoulter: “I’m so happy the @RandA and the @USGA are addressing the complex, very confusing rule book. Common sense will help all enjoy the game of golf.”
Tothe, a former USGA employee, concurred.
“I studied the rules of golf for a long time,” Tothe said. “They’re complex, even for a rules official. If we can make them easier, I think people will enjoy the game more. … Anything to speed up pace of play, I think, is a good thing. Absolutely. Especially out on tour.”
Among touring pros and tour administrators, the biggest issue involves penalties resulting from feedback generated by someone other than tournament rules officials. Asked about Thompson’s four-stroke penalty by Sirius XM radio, LPGA Tour Commissioner Michael Whan said: “It’s embarrassing. It’s one of those situations where the penalty does not match the crime.”
By issuing its April 25 ruling, golf’s governing bodies seem to be taking steps to close that loophole. Tothe called the situation a “gray area” that could use a more definitive stance by golf’s governing bodies.
“Maybe you just don’t allow TV viewers to call in,” Tothe said. “Why not? Regardless of what you see on TV, the round that day is being administered by the eight or nine rules officials on the course that day. I’d be fine with that. Absolutely.”
This story was originally published May 20, 2017 at 12:55 PM with the headline "Golf rules may change, but touring pros seek a different tweak."