Inside the Rulebook: Camilo Villegas Latest Victim of Golf's 'Armchair Officials'

Filed under: Golf Rules

David Stewart, PGA Tour professional at Florida's Kissimmee Golf Club and rules expert, helps break down the ever-complicated golf rulebook in "Inside the Rulebook" for FanHouse.

Add Camilo Villegas to the list of golfer's victimized by golf's legion of "armchair officials." During the season-opening Hyundai Tournament of Champions, Villegas violated golf's rule 23-1, which states "When a ball is in motion, a loose impediment that might influence the movement of the ball must not be removed." Villegas mis-hit an uphill pitch shot leaving it short of the green, as the ball was rolling back towards his feet he used his club to flick away the divot he just created. The penalty for breaching this rule is two strokes. Villegas was unaware that he violated a rule and signed and returned his scorecard without including the two penalty strokes.

PGA Tour officials were notified by a golfer/TV viewer that there may be something amiss. On site officials viewed the tape and found the rules violation, too late for Villegas. Once Camilo signed and returned his card it was too late to fix any errors, he was now in violation of rule 6-6b which says, "After completion of the round, the competitor should check his score for each hole and settle any doubtful points with the Committee." Penalty for this is disqualification, golf's version of the death penalty.

This situation raises several questions:

Q: Why didn't an on-site official see the violation?

A: You would need hundreds of officials to cover the 150 plus acre playing field called a Golf Course.

Q: How many rules controversies occur each year?

A: Golf seems to have just a few per season. The NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB seem to have a few every day, even though a much smaller playing field is involved and several sets of official's eyes and numerous TV cameras are trained on every play.

Q: But Camilo didn't even know he broke a rule?

A: Ignorance is no excuse for breaking the law.

Q: Should tour officials take comments from viewers then review any available evidence?

A: In every other sport fans cry out for the use of technology to "get the call right".

Do I think the penalty for returning a scorecard with a score lower than actually attained is too severe a penalty? Maybe so, but many other sports have some pretty severe penalties for seemingly miniscule violations. A 50-plus yard penalty for pass interference that is barely perceptible. The winning run comes home because of a balk that none of the 50,000 fans or any player on either team knows happened.

In golf, players mostly police themselves, play by the rules, and have the fewest controversies.

Why would we want to change that?

Source: http://golf.fanhouse.com/2011/01/15/inside-the-rulebook-camilo-villegas-latest-victim-of-golfs-ar/

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