Yesterday Michelle Wie was disqualified from her first tournament as a pro, for a rules violation made THE DAY BEFORE, that was reported by a fan. This is total bullshit.
If the officials don’t catch the error THE DAY OF THE ERROR, the officicals should be punished, not the player. Sure, Michelle should have asked for an official ruling when the incident occurred, but why wasn’t an official hovering over the situation to begin with?
The LPGA received a major boost last weekend, welcoming Michelle to the show, then they go and give themselves a black eye with this travesty.
Are you a golf fan? Because it shouldn’t be a surprise to any golfer that (a) golf does not have referees in the same way other sports do, therefore making it incumbent upon players to (a1) be sure of the rules or (a2) ask for rulings; and (b) signing an incorrect scorecard gets one DQed at any stage of the competition.
I think Wie is an exciting player, too, and its an unfortunate series of events, but the problem is not with golf or the rules of golf, it’s with a player.
Any time there is an unplayable lie, a rules official should take time out from their social activities to investigate the situation and offer guidance to the player. Period.
I found this intriguing because a writer for SI, Bamberger IIRC, was the one who “turned” in Wie. No one else noticed, and he waited until the tournament was almost over before he said something. It just seemed very suspect.
ccwaterback, there are not going to be officials swarming all over the course watching every single shot, so it really IS up to the golfer to call one over for questionable situations. She screwed up, and a DQ is the punishment.
OTOH, Bamberger is a fucking turd. According to the ESPN article, he went over and paced off the drop right after she finished the hole, thought it was fishy, and just sat on his thumb until the end of the tournament. He was in “reporter mode” so he wanted to interview her about it rather than do the decent thing and bring it up right away.
You know, as far as I’m concerned, if you go into “reporter” mode, where everything is about you and your story, you cease to be in “person” mode, so everybody around you has the right to treat you like a non-human reporting machine.
It happened to Greg Norman a few years ago in Australia. He stuffed up the rule for dropping/placing a ball but wasn’t informed by an observer until after he had signed his card. Although he was leading the tournament he disqualified himself for signing an incorrect scorecard. Had he known before signing his card he could have simply applied the appropriate penalty (if there was one) and played on.
Ok, I agree she should have CALLED on a ruling official. I don’t know how many rules officials are on the course, but apparently there should be more if they are overwhelmed by their responsibilities.
I just read an article about the disqualification and it seems that Bamberger “paced off the distance” to ascertain the “12 to 15 inches closer to the hole”. Rather than make Wie “replay” the event the next day they should have just looked at a video and told Bamberger to pissoff because it was indeterminate.
I gather that she didn’t bother calling for an official because it was just a routine drop. All she had to do was not drop closer to the hole and she was certain that she didn’t. Things like that happen all the time and no-one calls an official because they know what to do.
After reading this story about the disqualification, I’m even more impressed by Michelle Wie. She’s taking it very well and says she’s learned from it.
One thing that is slightly troubling is that this happened in part because Wie is so high profile she had more eyes and cameras on her than on anybody, probably. If this had happened in the first round to some random other player there is no SI reporter and there is no videotape.
Hehe - Miss Manners would approve! You make those officials hop, girl!
And yeah, there should be a rule about bringing up violations on the time they occur. 24 hours later who can remember exactly what happened (I mean, who besides the self-important reporter from SI?)
Bamberger’s a fucking dick. As a reporter, he’s there to observe and report on the news, not to make it. And if he decides he wants to be part of the action, he should do it straight away, not wait until after he files his story.
Also, does anyone know how far from the hole this incident occurred? Because it seems to me that an error of 12 inches (which was the official amount, according to the article linked by Monty) is something that is pretty fucking hard to determine with any reliability 24 hours after the incident took place. I mean, how do they know exactly where the ball fell initially, and exactly where Wie took her shot from?
Well, it sounds like the officals asked Wie where the ball was and where she dropped. Wie herself has acknowledged that she dropped closer to the hole, although she disputes the distance involved.
Sorry, i should have been clearer. I know that officials asked her, but my question is whether it would even be possible for her to pinpoint the exact place where the ball initially fell, and the exact place where she took her relief.
After all, if she’s just six inches out either way in each location, that’s enough to make up for the 1 foot that they claim she cheated.
I have nothing to add on this issue other than this reinforces my opinion that golf is a game for lawyers and the criminally insane. I’d rather have a child take up boosting cars or poetry recitation than golf.
I can’t imagine that this guy has any friends. Probably reminded the teacher to give the class homework back in grade school. Not to mention that without Wie, no one would give two shits about this women’s gold tournament.
What happened to Wie (violation seen on TV, complaint phoned in after the round, videotaped doublechecked, golfer disqualified for signing an inaccurate scorecard) is becoming a common occurrence. I just finished a good book by Arnold Palmer which cites and explains many similar occurences of rules violations.
