Debby Wong – USA Today Sports
One of the biggest stories of last week’s Masters at Augusta National revolved around — who else — Tiger Woods. Following his terrible bounce and controversial drop on the 15th hole in the second round, everybody in the world of golf had an opinion on what Woods did.
Did he know it was illegal? Shouldn’t he have? Should he have been disqualified or even, as ridiculous as this was, withdrawn himself? At the time, I mentioned that the idea of disqualification was ridiculous, not only because of the new rule that grants tournament officials discretion when violations are discovered after the fact, but also because there is a rules official present on every hole, and Tiger’s drop was not exactly done in secret.
In a column for ESPN.com, Rick Reilly brings up an even better point. In response to the possibility of the Masters assigning a rules official to every single group, instead of one per hole, he mentions that Augusta National could make golf history by being the first tournament to take scoring out of the players’ hands entirely, placing an official scorer with every group.
Whether you like Reilly or not, he’s right.
Golf is an honorable sport, where a player’s word is their bond. While the weekend duffers and hackers might not worry about that kick away from the tree stump, if the game is to be played in its purest form, the player needs to be relied on to keep an honest score.
Not only that, but if you choose to register a handicap index with the USGA, you’re the only one accountable for it. You really don’t want to be that guy who plays in a tournament registered at scratch, only to not break 100.
But at the highest professional levels, there’s no need for this to happen. In the Woods example, with an official scorer following the group, the issue would have been handled immediately. Either the issue doesn’t happen as the rules official corrects his drop location, or the two-stroke penalty is assessed before he even reaches the 16th tee. No muss, no fuss.
More than anything, no issues with fans calling the venue to register a complaint after the fact. Rory McIlroy and Phil Mickelson are all over fans’ televisions — Thomas Bjorn, perhaps, not so much. That’s another thing we may have to deal with, but that’s another story for another day.
Yes, golf is different from most sports in that it is truly an individual venture. The code of honor that its players abide by is different than others. But LeBron James and Derek Jeter aren’t responsible for keeping score in their games. If we’re looking for true accountability under the rules, perhaps it’s time to make that jump.
Augusta National has the clout in the golf world that few others have. Officials at the club state that they are not in the business of making rules, but this would simply be a way to change the way the rules are enforced. If their interest is in the good of golf, it’s time to make this change.
Brandon Raper is a golf writer for www.RantSports.com. Like him on Facebook, follow him on Twitter, or add him to your Google circles.
