I know, but it's the traditional Monday morning post title.... How 'bout dem Eagles?
No More Dropping a Dime - I guess this is for the best:
Attention all armchair golf rules officials who study video replay in search of infractions: your dedication to your craft is impressive. It's just not needed anymore.
Beginning Jan. 1, 2018, tournament officials will no longer field or consider your call-ins as part of rules decisions. All video reviews will be handled by one or more tournament officials assigned to the task.
"The message we're putting out to fans is, What you've seen, we've seen. Have confidence in us running the event," said Thomas Pagel, USGA senior director of rules and amateur status. "We want you to be a fan. Enjoy watching the world's best players. Let the rules be handled inside the ropes between the players and officials."
The change in protocol, announced jointly Monday by the USGA and the R&A, follows the recommendations of a working group led by the governing bodies and consisting of the PGA Tour, LPGA Tour, PGA European Tour, Ladies European Tour and the PGA of America.
I'm guessing because the cost in this is something a bit ephemeral, but not unimportant. I'll explain in a sec...
That bit about us having confidence in them is pretty rich, though.... Let me remind you of two items that stick in my craw:
- When DJ's ball moved on the green at Oakmont in 2016, the rules officials had to make their way in from the far reaches of the golf course to the clubhouse to watch the You and I were celebrating the fifth anniversary of our 4K TV's, but the USGA couldn't be bothered to have a rules official watching the video stream;
- For Tiger's infamous 15th hole drop at the Masters, the man in charge of rules for the competition had been warned about the drop, but chose to ignore it based upon his personal feelings about the source. That guy has gotten quite the promotion recently, though his organization is conspicuously absent from this announcement.
On to the Tour Confidential panel, and Mike Bamberger with a cogent explanation of the loss in this action:
Michael Bamberger: I agree, John — the rules are complicated, because the playing field is outdoors and so irregular. The more eyes on the players and their golf balls, the better the chances of the player turning in the most accurate scorecard he or she can. This move does not serve that goal. It does make life easier for tournament officials — Tell 'em we're not home! — and Tiger Woods and many others who have struggled with the weirdness of a guy on his lounger calling in a rules violation. But it was a TV viewer who attempted to save Woods at the 2013 Masters from signing an incorrect scorecard. (It so happens the caller was a former rules official, but that's a side note.) This change makes life easier for rules officials and makes golf sound like it is more in step with other sports, but it's a step away from the very essence of the game, that the player has a desire to turn in a wholly accurate scorecard. The player should not want to get away with anything and should welcome people watching, the more the better. The underlying principle of golf's rules is what Reagan used to say, Trust, but verify. At the TV compound at any Tour event there are a dozen or more screens showing live golf. If the officials are going to monitor the public broadcast, they should be monitoring that footage as well. The governing bodies are throwing in the towel here. They should have doubled-down on an education campaign.
Our game may simply be incompatible with 21st century life, but that obligation of the player to post an accurate score is what separates us from the animals... yanno, like football players.
This guy, that Mike was responding to above, hits on the issue that all of us had:
John Wood: I don't have a complicated opinion here, it's just the right call. This always amazed me anyhow: I've been caddying for 22 years now and feel like I'm pretty well connected out here, and if I saw an infraction on TV I wouldn't have a clue who to call. How these guys can not only get the correct number but do it in a timely enough fashion to reach the officials I'll never know. Golf rules are complicated enough to allow an outside agency influence with how they're enforced.
Nobody has ever admitted to knowing the number to call.... But John, just ask Lexi, they don't have to be all that timely.... next day is plenty good.
I think Alan hits on most golfer's reaction:
Alan Shipnuck: Given the endless screw-ups by various tournament officials through the years it's hard to have any confidence in them, but oooo-kay. This does eliminate one of the things that non-golf fans use as a cudgel against the rest of us, which is the absurdity of an over-served dude on his couch potentially having a huge impact on the competition. So, just eliminating that blowback makes me feel fine about this decision.
Equally aggravating, one has to get past the headline and deep into the body of the article to find this possible more significant rule change:
As part of the announcement, the governing bodies also approved a new local rule, available Jan. 1, that eliminates the two-stroke penalty for filing an incorrect scorecard as a result of an infraction that a player was unaware of.
Oh, Thank God. Mike Bamberger makes this quite excellent intellectual point on thos one:
Bamberger: There's a built-in weakness to this new local rule because it diminishes the player's responsibility to know. Now in those peculiar situations where you truly couldn't know you were breaking a rule, that would be one thing. Your ball moves while you are throwing grass in the air, for instance. But under this local rule, the player has much less incentive to know the rules, know what's going on with his or her ball, because if he or she gets called on it later, the player can say, I didn't know. I don't get it. The path here, with both these rules changes, is for the player to assume less responsibility. Golf is supposed to be about owning it.
This is so true and we'll rue the day, but the reality is that players were paying double the price for the rules officials' failure to do their jobs... So, we're going to ignore the rules violations and avoid the pile-on penalties, and hope that we'll never have to see Lexi cry again...
But, per Phil we will have at least one more year of players purposely moving their marks to avoid spike marks....
Design Stuff - Geoff's been doing double-duty on his blog and in the Golf Channel studio on subjects of interest... First, he has way too much fun with the awkward categories used by the golf mags to rate courses:
As the golf industry no longer churns out courses or even sees consistency in the renovation market, Golf and Golf Digest struggle to present their annual year-end "Best New" awards with any consistency. Or logic.Golf's is an odd list given the international courses few in its U.S.-based readership will play. Then there is the blessing of Streamsong Black as the year's "best new course of the year" and Sand Valley as the year's "best new course you can play." Even though Streamsong is a resort you very much can play, with the Black opening in September.
So a course that opens in September 2018 is the Best New Course of 2017? Was this voted on by rules officials? Specifically, these are the categories:
BEST NEW COURSE YOU CAN PLAYBEST NEW COURSE OF THE YEARBEST NEW PRIVATE COURSE/INTERNATIONAL COURSERENOVATION OF THE YEARBEST NEW COURSE YOU CAN PLAY (HONORABLE MENTION)SPECIAL CITATION: Spectacular New Short Courses
Given the way that the architects are fighting over table scraps, I'd have added a Miss Congeniality...
And Golf Digest had this head-scratcher:
Still not enough new courses to warrant New Public and New Private categories, so the 15 new courses nominated for consideration competed in a single Best New Courses race. But with 85 remodeled courses nominated, we decided to split our Best New Remodel survey into three categories to reflect the wide range of projects in today’s design industry. Major Remodel involves a total redesign with little regard to the original architecture. Renovation improves a design but sticks to the original routing. Restoration strives to honor the original architecture. What about “blow-up” jobs, where an existing course is so drastically altered (“blown up”) that it hardly resembles the original? That was up to each architect and individual club to decide whether to compete as a Best New candidate or Best Major Remodel.
I read that in the print mag a day or so ago and it seemed confusing... and I'm a geek that likes this stuff.
Do catch the video embedded at the end of the post in which Geoff and Matt Ginella give their criteria for ranking courses.... also, this video of the two guys picking the architect whose courses they'd want to play for the rest of their lives....
And this explainer on USGA greens is good as well...
Oh Rory! - One last quick shot, this query from the TC panel:
3. According to The Guardian, Rory McIlroy will stick with his long-time friend Harry Diamond as his caddie for the 2018 season. Diamond also caddied for McIlroy at the end of last season after he split with J.P. Fitzgerald. Like this move?
Oy vey! Let's see what the writers think:
Shipnuck: Sure, why not? Rory likes to keep things simple — the likes of Bones, with all of his data, would probably drive him crazy. Now that Rory is a married guy life on the road is, presumably, a lot more boring. Might as well have his best friend along to have some fun with.
Sens: Sure. I trust that Rory knows himself and his game well enough to have a good sense for whether his caddie is the right fit for him. If he feels good about it, that should be good enough for the rest of us.
Sure, this is a great move.... except it dramatically lowers my expectations for Rory in 2018 and beyond. I can't think of a player that would benefit more from a strong hand on the tiller more than Rory, but he can't see it.... I don't have the time to find that old anonymous tour pro feature from before The Masters, but expect to continue to see Rory bombing greens with wedges....Sheesh!
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