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Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Last week in excessive golf penalties
Rule:
Poulter, in keeping with golf tradition, informed rules officials immediately of the infraction, and boom, that was that. He had violated Rule 20-1/15, which chief referee Andy McFee indicated read as follows: “Any accidental movement of the ball marker which occurs before or after the specific act of marking, including as a result of dropping the ball, regardless of the height from which it was dropped … results in the player incurring a one stroke penalty.”
Certainly, Poulter did the right thing in reporting the violation. The fact that the players police themselves is what makes golf a unique sport. But the rule isn’t the problem; the severity of the punishment is. As with so many other infractions in golf, the penalty is totally out of proportion to the degree of the “crime.”
It looks like the marker was at 40 feet. I understand the rule for disturbing the marker, because it might move the ball from 3 feet to 2 feet 11.5 inches, and so, get an unfair half-inch advantage on a putt. This would be like blowing the whistle for an offside if the ref sees the skate of a player cross the blue line before the puck by a split second, however inconsequential.
I’m usually pretty anti silly-golf rule, but I think I have to live with this one. Basically, when you mark and unmark your ball, you are very careful in how you mark it, practically being a surgeon. To be in a position to accidentally unmark it is sloppy.
I dunno… I’d love to find a reason to justify that it’s a silly rule. I’m all ears…