Four Stroke Penalty...

Felipe Aguilar of Chile was assessed a four stroke penalty last week at the Turkish Open.  The second round was not completed due to weather, and Aguilar switched out one club for another before resuming the round the next day.  The relevant rule is 4-4, as follows:

"The player must not start a stipulated round with more than fourteen clubs.  He is limited to the clubs thus selected for that round..."

If he had started with thirteen clubs, he would have been allowed to add one.  However, swapping out one for another within a stipulated round?  Verboten.  The penalty is two strokes a hole for each of the first two holes he had the club in his bag. 

It was a mistake of ignorance, not intent.  Aguilar's fellow competitor, Magnus Carlsson, noticed it and asked Aguilar about it.  Aguilar asked a rules official before he signed his card if he had committed a breach.

http://golfweek.com/news/2014/nov/15/european-tour-turkish-open-felipe-aguilar-rules/

The Mackenzie: Two days in Golf’s Equivalent of Grand Central Station

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My last tournament assignment of the year was this past Monday and Tuesday at the Alistair Mackenzie Tournament at the Meadow Club, hosted by my alma mater, Cal.  I worked this tournament last year, though the venue was the Sonoma Golf Club.

My station for the first day, 36 holes, was the 6^th and 16^th holes.  There are five parallel holes at the MC.  In order, 15 goes north, 13 south, 6 north, 16, south, and 17 north.  Complicating matters is that for big hitters at least (and all these college players qualify), #6 is safer to play from either the 13^th or 16^th fairways.  (One played from the 17th, two fairways over, but I think that was a big miss.)  From the 15^th, the player has a better angle to the green from the 13^th fairway.  And right of the 17^th is so penal, players err toward being in the 16^th.    So you can see how complicated this part of the course can be.

The sixth hole, in a rare peaceful moment

It wasn’t uncommon to have players in the 13^th fairway playing three different holes.  There was one memorable moment when there were seven balls in the 13^th fairway—four playing 13, two playing 16, and one playing 15.  One drive hit another ball in the 13^th, from players playing different holes  There were generally three and often four or five tournament officials in the area, and there were times that that wasn’t enough!

It was an incredibly busy day, and dangerous at times.  I was talking to another TO at his cart on the path between 13 and 6, and a ball from the 13^th tee landed on the top of his cart, meaning it missed me by about two feet.  Another time, while speaking to another TO between the two holes, a ball bounced directly between us.  My suggestion for next year is that TO’s in that area be issued hard hats.

The second day was not quite as eventful, but still interesting.  I was to monitor 17 and 18.  There were very few issues on 18, as most players played an iron off the tee to the shortish par four.  Seventeen was, as the saying goes, a whole ‘nuther story.  The right side, a steep hillside featuring oak trees, weeds, blackberries, and numerous small bushes, got plenty of business.  (I noted that if I get that assignment next year, I'm bringing crampons.)  A player in the very first group was particularly unlucky.  He hit his drive up the hillside, which we never found.  I drove him back to the tee, where he hit his next ball even farther up the hill.  I told him to hit a provisional ball, which he put in the fairway.   We didn’t find the second, so he played his third ball lying five.  I presume he made no better than a triple and probably a quadruple bogey.  Two groups later, while searching for another player’s ball, we found the first ball.

Midway through the round a player hit ball up the hillside, and a small bush stopped it.  I stood by in case the player needed any help.  The coach instructed him that the best option was to come out sideways.  The player wanted to go forward, but because of where his ball was in the bush, it was much riskier.  Coach told him he’d only be gaining 10 or 15 yards, and with substantial risk  Coach then moved away.  The player addressed the ball to come out sideways.  Then he shifted over to aim forward toward the green.  I looked over at the coach, who gave a wry grin and shook his head.  The player eventually turned back and played safely back into the fairway.

Later on, another player hit his ball a bit up the hillside, and it came to rest in a similar lie.  His coach instructed the player to ask me what his options were.  I did so, but only later thought to add a fifth option:  “Do whatever the heck your coach tells you to!”

These two days were probably my most interesting days of the season.  And just when you think you’ve heard it all…

Midway through the second round, a call came over the radio.  It seems a player had played out of a bunker close to the hole and marked.  The other players putted out and headed to the next tee, as did he.  A fellow competitor asked him “Did you putt out yet?”  Nope, he hadn’t.  It was late in a long day, and everyone was a little physically and mentally worn out, but, still…  If he had proceeded to tee off on the next, he would have been disqualified.  Interesting little brain fart there!

To Drop Or Not To Drop: A Tale Of Two Fields

I’ve had an interesting time as a TO lately, working two very different events in a six day span. Yogi’s words; “You can observe a lot just by watching” ring absolutely true…

And one thing I’ve learned “just by watching” is how often golfers are their own worst enemies when dealing with the rules.  Last Thursday I worked an NCGA Net Amateur Qualifier at Paradise Valley in Fairfield.  The players’ handicaps ranged from five to twenty-seven, with certainly widely varying degrees of tournament experience and familiarity with the rules.

The oddest question of the day came on the second hole.  A player had hit his ball into the lateral hazard on the right side of the fairway, a common occurrence as players tried to stay away from the big oak in the center of the fairway.  After guiding him through the proper drop procedure, he hit his next shot over a bunker right of the green and into another lateral hazard.  I told him to wave me over if he needed any help.

Sure enough, a minute later he called for me.  He showed me the position of the ball, under a shrub and in a nest of twigs.  He asked if he could move the bush with his leg and remove the twigs.  My answer:  “Neither of those.”  What I wanted to say:  “Depends on how many more penalty strokes you want.”  (Those would be two separate violations, total four penalty strokes.)

Back to my point:  I spent the latter half of the day on the eighteenth hole, a dogleg right with a big pond on the inside corner.  That pond got a lot of business.  One group had two players hit into the hazard, about fifteen yards apart.  I showed the first player where he had crossed in, and explained his options under Rule 26-1.  One would be to drop within two club-lengths of that point.  That would put him on a downhill-sidehill slope, a tough shot considering he would still have the pond to negotiate.  Or, he could drop straight back as far as he wanted in line with the flagstick.  Under this option, he could have played from a flat lie, though twenty yards farther back.  He decided he didn’t want to give up the yardage.

What happened next was pretty predictable.  He chunked two more balls into the pond before finally clearing it with his seventh stroke.  The next player took the second option, dropped on a flat lie, and put his ball on the green from there, giving him a chance at par, probably no worse than a bogey.

Fast-forward to Monday, the St Mary’s Invitational college tournament at Bayonet/ Black Horse in Seaside.  Sixteen Division 1 college teams—you could hardly have a more different field than my previous event.  Two things occur at Bayonet that you don’t often see.  First, over the two rounds there, I had five players lose balls in the canopy of cypress trees.  Since the balls were stuck up in the tree and couldn’t be identified, the ruling is lost ball, followed by that awkward cart ride back to the tee to re-hit.  Most of the players took it in stride, saying something like “That’s golf, stuff happens.”  One player had it happen twice, which is unbelievably unlucky.

Second, the driving range is considered through the green, in play.  The first and second holes border the range on the left side.  Many shots were played from ten, twenty, even thirty yards into the range.  I don’t remember ever playing a course where the range is in bounds.

But, again, let’s get back to my thesis.  I was stationed on the tenth hole at Black Horse for the second round.  There is a fairway bunker on the right, and beyond that, farther right, is a hard sandy area with patches of weeds.  One of the coaches came by and when I asked him how things were going, he said it would be a lot better if his players had a better sense of when to take their medicine, instead of trying heroic shots from trouble.  Almost as if on cue, a few groups later one of his players went over the bunker and into the weeds.  Here’s a picture of his lie from directly behind, aimed toward the green.

I stood off to the side while coach and player discussed it.  He was about 120 yards from the green.  The player was convinced he could chop it out.  Coach told him that because of the weeds, there was a very good chance he might not hit the ball at all, or chop it into a worse position. There was nothing but more weeds, then bunkers between him and the green.  Then, unbelievably, the player asked if he could pull out some of the weeds!  (I know these weeds.  Our yard was covered with them when we moved in.  They’re very shallow rooted, but are tough, wiry things.  I wouldn't want to try to swing a club through them.)  Coach looked at him in shock, then looked at me and shrugged.  It took about five minutes, but he finally talked the player into taking an unplayable lie and dropping back about fifteen yards to a perfectly clean lie.  From there, he put it on the green and narrowly missed his par putt.  Had he played it as it lay, double or even triple were distinct possibilities.

Coach came back a bit later and said he wished he’d taken a picture of the lie.  It just so happened I had, and I sent it to him.  He said it would be exhibit A in that night’s team meeting.

The point of all this?  The Rules of Golf can help you.  Know your options, and use them.  Sometimes giving up a few yards is the smart play.  I’ve become more acutely aware of how to manage my game when I get into these kinds of situations by what I’ve seen over my almost two seasons as a Tournament Official.

In the mean time, I’ll keep on both observing AND watching!

Rules Of Golf In The News...

I worked a four ball qualifier last week at Foxtail in Rohnert Park, but it was a very quiet day.  About the only excitement was the medalist team shot a better ball 60, twelve under, that included a double bogey on the tenth when both players went in the water.  That's some fine playing!

Otherwise, there have been a couple of notable rules issues in the past few weeks.  First, at the US Amateur, eventual champion Gunn Yang was saved a potential penalty by a rules official.  On the 11th hole in the afternoon round, the match referee, USGA President Tom O'Toole, stopped Yang from putting because he noticed his caddie standing directly behind him, a violation of rule 14-2b.  Those of you who've been following the game for some time might remember that Andy Martinez, Johnny Miller's caddie, used to crouch behind him as he putted to block out any distractions.  A number of LPGA players used the same tactic until it was ruled illegal.  Yang's penalty would have been loss of the hole.

That's a pretty clear example of the role that rules officials play.  We're there to not just help the players out with rulings, but to keep them from committing violations whenever possible.  This was a big one-- the match would have been even, buy Yang was able to save par and maintain a one hole lead.  The story can be found here.

And on a slightly bigger stage, the next week at the PGA Championship, a player disqualified himself five days later.  Cameron Tringale disqualified himself five days after the fact for an action that he had already been cleared for.  On, coincidentally, also the 11th hole, he moved his putter over the ball before tapping it in.  There was originally some question as to whether the ball moved, and if he had taken a swing at it.  Both he and his fellow competitor, Matt Jones, agreed that there was no intent, no movement, no violation.  But after the tournament, Tringale started to think not that he was wrong, but that other people might think he was wrong.  He took the high road and called the PGA to disqualify himself for signing for an incorrect score, rule 6-6d.  His decision cost him a 33rd place finish, $53,000, and eight places on the FedEx Cup standings.  Full story here.

But he gained a lot more than that. 

US Am Sectional Qualifying, Santa Rosa GC

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Thirteen hours.  Thirty-eight holes.  Another loooong day…

I worked the US Amateur Championship sectional qualifier Moday at Santa Rosa Golf Club yesterday.  Last year, however, I could only stay for the first round.  This time, like the US Open qualifier at Lake Merced, I was there for the duration.

Rules wise, it wasn’t a terribly busy day.  There were a number of typical relief situations from cart paths, ground under repair, and embedded balls, including one double drop, but nothing unusual.  Hazards and out of bounds don't come in to play much at SRGC, except for on the outer borders of the course  There was one interesting situation where a player was a foot from OB and a yard from a lateral hazard, and chose to take an unplayable lie because he couldn’t take a stance without running afoul of the barbed wire fence demarking the OB.  The TO's later had an good discussion about what would have happened if the player had hit a provisional, and the ball was not found, but it wasn't certain whether it went into the hazard or out of bounds.

From a competitive standpoint, the finish was compelling.  Three players and two alternates were to be chosen.  One player was in at 137 and four at 140, meaning those four would play off for the remaining two spots and the alternate positions.  With darkness looming, the players gathered at the first tee.

Four nervous tee shots were hit—Player A snap hooks left, B, C, and D wide right.  B is in the fairway, barely.  A punched out to the right greenside bunker.  D hit  a beautiful shot over the trees to about fifteen feet right behind the flagstick.  C didn’t have a direct shot because of a bush, and punched to the green short and left.  B hit from the fairway to the green about thirty feet left.

Both A and C hit their third shots to about 20 feet short of the hole.  B left his first putt five feet short.  Advantage D, awaiting his putt for birdie.  But wait…  A missed, and tapped in for bogey.  But Player C, who another official said had made everything, drilled his twenty footer for par.  Pressure had changed jerseys.

 

Player D, who had been starting to look a little jumpy, knocked his birdie putt six feet by, and his par effort lipped all the way around and came out right back at him.  He looked at it in shock.  Bogey.  Player B calmly sank his par putt, so he and C were in the US Am.  A and D headed to the ninth hole to continue the playoff and decide who would be first alternate. 

They both drilled long tee shots, helped by some serious red-ass factor.  A’s approach, off a tricky side-hill lie, was right at the hole, but about 25 feet above the hole.  D hit  another wonderful approach shot, about eight feet below the hole.  It was pretty obvious by now what was going to happen.  A calmly dropped his slippery downhill birdie putt.  D’s putt didn’t have a chance, and he turned ashen.

Like I said, classic match play.  On both holes, Player D looked to have the clear advantage, and came out on the short end.  There is a golf maxim in match play—Always expect your opponent to hit a great shot, sink a great putt.  If Player D didn’t know that one before, he certainly does now!

US Junior Am Qualifying: A Long, Hot Day at Stanford GC

I had the pleasure of working at Stanford University Golf Course for the US Junior Amateur Championship Sectional Qualifier.  Once again, the NCGA was able to muster up enough officials to send one out with each group.

I had put in a request to work with one of the starters, to get that checked off my training list, before heading off with my assigned group.  I was lucky enough to work with Ted Antonopolous, the head pro at Mayacama, for an hour and a half.  Ted is a true professional, and has a very nice touch with the players.  Our goal is to set them off on time and informed.  As I said in my previous post, from Rancho Solano, starting is one of the most enjoyable parts of this job.

My group of three players included a rising high school junior, sophomore, and eighth grader.   The fun started almost immediately.

One of my players hit a big snap hook off the second tee.  We headed off, searched for the allotted five minutes in the weeds, and then the rover drove him back to the tee.  He was about half way there when his ball was found, about fifty yards from where we were searching.  I explained to his parents that it was too late, five minutes is the limit for a ball search, after which the ball is deemed lost.

Three holes later, behind the fifth green, a different rover told me the player’s mom came over to ask, and they had a detailed discussion about why the ball was lost even though it was found.

A very interesting and instructional, event happened on the thirteenth hole.  I was not at the tee when the players teed off, but about 75 yards up the fairway.  The same player who suffered the lost ball, started walking down the right side, so I headed that way.  (I could see the other two players’ balls in the fairway.)  When we got down around where the ball should have been, a spectator told us she had heard a ball land behind her but didn’t see it.  Since she was standing on a cart path, and the other side of the path was out of bounds, the player headed back to the tee.  Here’s where the fun began.

I called the back-nine rover to come transport him.  He started walking back, and before the rover got there, he called me over, saying he’d found his ball, about 75 yards from where we he thought it had crossed OB.  I asked him if he was sure, and he showed me the ball, a Titleist 2 with a red line.  Since it was quite a way from where we expected it to be, I told him he could mark and lift and positively identify it.  He declined and said he was sure it was his.

In the mean time, the rover arrived, and jokingly chided me for not having him hit a provisional in the first place.   The player punched out short of the green, and the rover went up to the 14^th tee to investigate the delay there.  (Stanford GC’s par three holes ALWAYS cause backups.)  The player got to his ball and called for me again, explaining that it was not in fact his—now he could see a “S” logo on it, and it definitely was not his. 

I called the rover back, and we discussed the situation with the player.  He drove the player back to the tee to re-tee.  He drove into the rough, hit the green from there, and sank a twenty-foot putt.   But… For what score?

The rover and I spent a few minutes discussing the sequence of events.  We thought we had the right answer, and he said he’d get confirmation, and he came back a few minutes later with the verdict from another official, one who has scored 100 on the USGA rules test.  Here’s the tally:

One:  Stroke from the tee

Two:  Stroke from the rough, which turned out to be the wrong ball, so the stroke does not count, but...

Two and Three:  Penalty strokes for playing a wrong ball.  Player must now play the original ball, which was out of bounds, so…

Four:  Distance penalty for OB

Five:  Stroke from tee

Six:  Stroke to green

Seven:  Holed Putt

The other two players were really curious.  I explained the sequence to them, and told them that a good rule to go by is if an official suggests that you identify your ball, it’s probably a good idea to do so.  The player, the rover and I discussed it further after he had teed off on the 15^th, and he was satisfied with the ruling and thankful for the lesson learned.

A New Experience: Associate Club Championship Qualifying

It was a long, but truly enjoyable day at Rancho Solano on Thursday.  The event was the 2014 Associate Club Championship local qualifier with a large field—nineteen teams, three hours of tee times.  This is an interesting and complex event to officiate, as each club sends a four man team.  The teams are broken up into two parts so that everyone plays with markers from another team.  Then, at scoring, two scorecards must be analyzed for two best net scores for each hole.

My very first ride-along training session last May was with the esteemed Betsy Pelkan.  Since then, I have always enjoyed working tournaments that she chairs, as she not only has a wealth of rules and tournament administration knowledge and experience to share, but she is also aware of the needs of newer officials.  This was no exception.  To my delight, my assignment was starting the entire field off the first tee, after she sent the first group off, then learning how to score the event.

It hasn’t taken me long to realize how much I enjoy the first tee at NCGA events.  The starter has the opportunity to meet and greet every player before they’ve missed a single fairway or putt, exchange pleasantries, answer questions, and basically make sure everyone gets started off on time and in compliance.  The players are uniformly friendly and grateful for the help.

On the rules front, there wasn’t much action.  The radio was silent most of the day.  The only real rules incidents were two players guilty of hitting someone the wrong ball, and one who picked his up to identify it without marking it or telling anyone what he was doing.  Interestingly enough, all of those incidents happened in the very same foursome!

After Betsy showed me the best way to line up the cards and write down the best scores for each hole, it was fairly simple.  The only problem was addition block after looking at too many cards!

There were two women in the field.  Betsy had predicted beforehand that one would likely qualify.  Sure enough—a woman who hit her initial tee shot about thirty yards sideways got over the jitters and shot 41 on the front side with a 21 handicap, and her team finished in the top spot. 

It also marked a new milestone:  the first time I’ve ever gotten a hug from a player!

The Longest Day In Golf

I worked the aptly named “Longest Day in Golf”, aka US Open Sectional Qualifying, yesterday at Lake Merced Golf Club.  Players played one round there and one at the Olympic Club Ocean Course.  Honestly, I don’t think the USGA could have found two hillier courses close enough together to pull this off anywhere else.

My role was as a walking scorer.  We were each supplied with a tablet through which we could enter the scores after each hole, so each player’s score was more or less up to date on the USGA website.  We would also be the players’ access to a rules official if needed.  (I was not there in a rules official capacity.)

The morning round was relatively uneventful.  There were no rulings, no penalties, and one drop I can remember for relief from a sprinkler head.  Lake Merced has very little trouble except for out of bounds.  There are a few spots where there is potential for a lost ball, but they are well out of the normal line of play for players of this level.

The second round was another story.  If you read my last post, from a few weeks ago about CGA State Am qualifying, you’ll remember a player who WD’d on the 14^th hole.  Well, it happened again.  This player hit a 330 yard bomb on the 503 yard sixth hole.  He hit an iron to the back of the green, really a pretty good shot, though the eagle putt was downhill and quite quick. 

That’s where the fun began.  He hit his first putt about eight feet by.  Without marking, he stepped in and hit the birdie putt about three feet by, went up and raked that one towards the hole, hit it again before it stopped, and picked it up before it went in the hole.  (I may have missed one or two in there)  The rest of us just looked at each other, confused.  He had not finished the hole.

Putting on my rules official hat, I calculated in my mind that he had committed several breaches:  Two strokes for hitting a ball that was still moving (Rule 14-5, “Playing Moving Ball”), and one more for picking it up (18-2, “Ball at Rest Moved… by Player”).  He needed to replace it and putt out, which he hadn’t done.  (Note:  My rules guru tells me the first violation was probably Rule 1-2, “Exerting Influence on Movement of Ball")

There was a roving official nearby, so I waved him over.  I told him what the player had done and that he hadn’t finished the hole.  The player came over and informed us that he was withdrawing, and asked if he could keep playing, or at least finish the nine.  I knew from my experience at Fountaingrove that the answer was no.  But there is another consideration here.

Because the player had made it to the sectional by qualifying elsewhere, he could not simply withdraw without a good reason, like an injury, without repercussions.  He had taken a spot someone else could have earned.  Therefore, he would face some sort of sanction from the USGA.  The rules committee informed the official that the best thing for him to do would be to tee off on the seventh hole.  Therefore, he would be DQ’d because he had committed a breach—not holing out (Rule 3-2)—on the sixth hole and had not corrected it before starting the next hole.  He teed off, hit another bomb twenty yards past either of the two remaining players (this guy could really smoke the ball), turned and headed back to the clubhouse, taking his girlfriend/caddie and ten of the twelve gallery members with him.

The highlight of the day was one of my players qualifying for the Open.  As I walked up to the 18^th green, another scorer waved me over and told me the player was in if he parred 18.  He was on in regulation with a slippery 12-foot birdie putt, which he lagged close and tapped in for par.  I entered the score, and the standings popped up on my tablet.  The player walked over, we shook hands, and I said, “Want to see the good news?”  His eyes lit up when I showed him the standings.  One hundred and ten players teed it up that morning for five spots, and he was tied for fourth.  We were one of the last groups out, and there was nobody close enough to catch him.

CGA AM Qualifying at Fountaingrove GC

It was a very busy day at Fountaingrove GC Monday for the CGA Amateur Championship Qualifier.  It was also a treat for me, as I haven’t been on the course since my wedding day in 1985, when it was just a year or two old.

My assignment was to spot on the 14^th hole.  Fourteen is a long par five with trouble all around:  Out of bounds right, and bushes, trees, long grass, and rattlesnake country all the way down the left side.  As it would be a couple of hours before the first groups got there, I was able to take a close look at the course, and follow a few groups through the front side.  After looking at the course set up, and considering the stiffening breeze, it looked like it would be a buy day for the Tournament Officials.

I arrived at 14 while the third group was in the 13^th fairway—the first two groups were twosomes and had long since flown through.  Before long I was searching for balls in the rough on a regular basis.  In fact, three TO’s were occupied at one time on the hole.  The TO timing at the 13^th green also monitored the  14^th tee, so I could radio him when players should hit a provisional.   The TO who was roving the back nine spent much of the time with me, and there were at least three times when we were both occupied on different parts of the hole with ball searches, drop rulings, etc.

The most interesting moment, and a good one in the education of a rules official, came after a player hit a ball way left into the jungle, hit his provisional OB right, then a second provisional way left.  I radioed back that he should hit another, but he was already on his way down the fairway, so it would be find one or say goodbye.  After a five-minute search, we had found a lot of balls (I found fifteen myself), but not either of his.  I told him time was up, and he said he’d just walk the hole in, and asked if he could continue the round even after WD’ing.

I told him I wasn’t sure (I didn’t think so), and went to consult with the rover.  We radioed the rules committee, and the answer was no—because it would raise the possibility that a non-competitor could do something that gave aid to a competitor.  I drove up to the green to inform him that he had to leave the course.  After signing for the holes he had marked for one of his fellow competitors and re-distributing the score cards, we drove in.  It was actually kind of odd.  We got some funny looks from the five or six groups we passed.  I felt like I’d arrested someone—and the ride was the golf version of a “perp walk!”

I delivered the player to scoring where he explained the circumstances to the rules committee, then went back to follow the final groups in.

I appreciated that a certified rules official gave me, barely past my rookie season, the chance to handle a difficult situation on my own, and then thank me over the radio for doing so.  The TO’s are truly a team, and the support is tremendous.

Interesting Drops at the Wells Fargo Championship

The left side of the 18th hole at Quail Hollow, site of this week's PGA tournament, features a narrow creek running up most of the length of the hole.  Late in the 3rd round, I saw two players, Justin Rose and Martin Flores (who was tied for the lead at the time) hook their tee shots left of the hazard, only to see the ball bounce off the bank and into the creek.

Both players took a drop that not too many amateurs know about:  Under 26-1c, the player may determine the point where the ball last crossed the margin of the hazard, and drop at "a point on the opposite margin of the water hazard equidistant from the the hole."  This was the best choice for Rose and Flores, since it gave them a much flatter and cleaner lie than dropping on the side where the ball crossed into the hazard.

This picture shows the severe bank the players would have had to play off of had they dropped on the left side.  Two club lengths from the right margin of the hazard gave them clean, level lies, and I think might have even gotten them into the fairway.

I tried explaining this option to a player in a tournament I worked last season, to be met with a very confused stare. 

2014 NCGA Four-Ball Qualifying

This was probably the most uneventful event I've worked yet, as far as rules questions went.  In a large part, that was due to the field:  It was a scratch event, played from the back tees (6800+ yards), and participants had to have indexes of 5.4 or below.  Thus, you had a field of players who kept the ball in play, and had at least a decent understanding of the rules.  An easy day for officials!

The first group went off at 8AM, and I played as a marker with the last pair at 10:10.  I spent much of the time between hanging around Paul Layrac, a certified rules official who has been my main mentor so far.  As I said, there was just plain not much going on.  Instead, we got to sit back and enjoy watching guys hit 300+ yard drives, splitting fairways or cutting doglegs.

Turns out the pair I marked for, who play out of Chardonnay, are good friends and frequent partners with my brother in law, who lives on the 10th fairway at Rancho Solano in Fairfield.  Everyone knows Jack, and everyone loves Jack.  My guys were a little over matched by the distance, and scrambled hard to shoot 75, missing the cut by four.  Without putting too much effort into it, because I mostly wanted to stay out of the way of the competitors, I shot 80 with two penalty strokes (hazards), which from 6800+ yards I'll take. 

Again, a pretty non-eventful day. 

A Free Drop That Puts You In A Worse Spot Of Bother

For all intents and purposes, my home course is now the Windsor Golf Club in Windsor, CA.  There is  an interesting spot behind the third green, a shortish par four that I've been able to get within 30 yards of off the tee.  Because it is such a short second shot, it's not unusual for a player to blade one over the green.  Behind the green, which runs roughly east-west in kind of a banana shape, is a boundary fence roughly ten yards behind the green.  Just before the fence is a cart path.  Here's a look at it from the middle of the green:

You can see that there is not a lot of room between the cart path and the fence.  Here is a better view, from the side:

It may not look like it, but there is actually room to drop on that grass strip behind the cart path and have full relief from the path.  However, if you did that, you would be in a position where your back swing would be impacted by the boundary fence, and, of course, there is no free relief from a boundary fence.  If you took this relief from the path, then wanted relief from the fence, you would have to declare an unplayable lie and take a stroke penalty.  As the path runs parallel to the width of the green, you would probably not be able to go two club-lengths either direction without (a) getting any closer to the hole, or (b) improving your situation to the point where you would actually have a clear swing.

The alternative would be stroke and distance-- go back and play from as close as possible to the spot where you hit the previous shot, the one that ended up on the cart path.  After further review, we decided that the best course of action would probably be to play it off the cart path.  After all, whose wedges aren't already pretty scuffed up?

As a second year TO, I found this an interesting situation.  It underscores the need to make sure players are aware of their options BEFORE they pick up their ball.  It's the reason one of the senior officials one told me that the last thing you want to see when you arrive at a situation is the player with his ball in his hand.

A Year Ago At The Masters...

Although the subject has been beaten into the ground, and a number of people have suffered for their actions and views of what happened, here it is again.  In the April 7th issue of Sports Illustrated, Alan Shipnuck offers a comprehensive post-mortem on Tiger's now infamous improper drop on the 15th hole of the second round.

I certainly won't claim to be a rules expert, let alone attempt to explain the details of the ruling, but there are several things that seem pretty clear to me.

First:  I have no idea what was going through Tiger's mind at the time, but he's played enough golf to know that "as nearly as possible at the spot from which the original ball was last played" (Rule 26-1) means just that, not two yards back to give himself a more favorable yardage.  Brain fart?  Probably, but why didn't his caddie, Joe LaCava, who has been around the block a few times, step up?  Joe stayed with the bag at the site of the original shot while Tiger walked forward to assess his options.  He too, had to know that going back two yards was wrong

Next, what in the world was Fred Ridley thinking?  He was alerted and saw the replay.  He knew by then that it was  questionable.  Why did he not consult with the player before he signed his card, which is, as should be, SOP in such a situation, particularly in the highest profile tournament in golf and with the highest profile player in the game?  A subplot question, which Shipnuck raises again:  Was Ridley influenced by the fact that he and David Eger, who he knew was the originator of the question, have a history?  (To put it politely.  In a Golf Digest interview later that year, Eger stated "In my view, Ridley's knowledge of The Rules of Golf was, and is, suspect."  OUCH!") 

Finally, numerous commentators have made the point that it was probably a good thing for Tiger from the standpoint of his legacy that he didn't go on to win, since many would have viewed such a victory as tainted.  I am not Tiger's biggest fan, but I'm not sure I completely agree.  He did make a mistake, but he was exonerated by the rules committee and allowed to continue.  While he probably would have earned even more admiration had he stepped up and withdrawn, he did what he was allowed to do.  However, this comes close to blurring the line between golf and the ethic that prevails in pretty much any other professional sport:  That you do what you have to do and whatever you can get away with.  If it's called, fine, but if it's not, great.

As an aside, two days ago Tiger announced he would not play in the 2014 Masters, and for some time afterwards, due to his back issue and subsequent surgery.  Numerous pros have tweeted their support and their wish that he get back to competition as soon as possible.  I'm wondering if one will say what they're all probably thinking:  Don't mean to wish back surgery on anyone, but, hey, my own chances just went up a whole bunch!

Communicate With Your Players!

Just a little side note from the Goodwin Tournament.  Pace of play is a big, big issue.  I've been following college golf for years, and I've been convinced that the reason pros play so slowly is that nobody made them play faster as collegians.  Now, the expected finish time for each hole is right there on every player's scorecard.

When I was introduced to my group on the first tee, I told them, as advised, to pay attention to the pace of play guidelines, and if they ever saw me heading out down a fairway ahead of them, that would be a subtle clue that perhaps they were lagging behind the suggested pace.  On Sunday, the fifth tee was set up about thirty yards above and behind the fourth green.  Instead of going back to the tee, I headed up the fairway to spot their drives.  After they putted out on five, the first two players asked me if they were on pace.

Since they were the second group off the tee, there was virtually no chance they would be in trouble.  They were at the time, in fact, fourteen minutes ahead of their expected maximum pace.  It took me a moment to connect their question to what I had told them on the first tee.  I apologized to them for the unnecessary concern, and informed them that if I was going up to spot in the future I would let them know what I was doing.

Soooo... The moral of the story is....  Stick with, but remember, what you said.

A Wrong Ruling at Roddy Ranch

I worked a 36 hole US Amateur qualifier at Roddy Ranch last summer.  For much of the second round, I was stationed at the 14th (I think) hole.  The hole is a long par four, with tee shot over a hump then downhill to a blind landing area.  There is a spot near the bottom of the fairway which serves as a collection area for long drives.  Sure enough, two balls came to rest touching each other.  I told the player whose ball was closer to the hole to mark his position, move the mark, then replace the ball after the other player had played.  The obvious question arose:  There would be a divot where his ball was which wasn't there before.  I was certain the player was entitled to the original lie, but was unsure whether it would be a placement or a drop.

We were at the bottom of the course, and out of radio range due to topography.  I tried for a minute to get a response, then discussed it with the player.  He was likewise unsure.  We agreed that he would drop, choosing to err on the side of caution.  He would likely not be disadvantaged, since there was a pristine area right near where his ball originally lay.  His ball ended up in as good a lie as the original, and he almost pitched in for eagle.

On my way back to the clubhouse after the last group was through, I ran into a certified rules official.  I explained what I'd done, and the official told me I'd done the right thing, which made me feel better.  Before I got to the house, however, the official called me back and said it should indeed have been a placement.  Here's the rub:  If the ball had been in a divot, and the first player to play made a bigger divot, and there was no similar lie nearby, he would have been required to place it in the now deeper divot.

What did I learn?  When in doubt, ask, and even if you get an acceptable answer, ask again, as it may not be right.  Kudos to the official I asked for getting double-checking and getting back to me.

The Education of a Tournament Official: Learning Experiences at the Goodwin

I am recovering from a very interesting, albeit tiring, four days, golfing-wise.  A major part of it was working the Goodwin Tournament at the Stanford Golf Course.  Since so many tournament officials signed up for it, the tournament was able to assign an official to each group, with just a few double ups.  We would each walk with one group through 18 holes.  It turned out to be even more enjoyable than I expected-- much more fun that riding a cart back and forth between two or three groups, and a major bump up from sitting in one spot all day.

Above all, it was a prime educational experience for this second year tournament official.  On Friday I had players from TCU, Washington, and UNLV.  Since I lived in Seattle for 26 years, it was nice to have the UW player.  As soon as I asked him how he liked Aldarra, my old club, where UW has playing privileges, I had his attention.  Not two holes went by that we didn't talk about the course, our favorite holes, how great a design it is, how good a winter course it is, and so on.

The round was fairly uneventful--no more than a handful of routine rulings, like relief from cart paths, french drains, and the like.  The second day was a whole 'nuther story, starting from the very first green.  I was standing just off the putting green when I noticed my three players, from Northwestern, Alabama-Birmingham, and Fresno State, talking about something near the hole and then motioning for me to come over.  One of the players had marked his ball and tapped the mark down with his putter, then walked away.  When it was his turn, his mark was nowhere to be found, until he returned to where he'd waited.  It had apparently stuck to the bottom of his putterhead.

Although I was fairly certain of the rule, I got on the radio to explain the situation.  The ruling is that since the mark was moved in an act directly attributable to marking the ball, there is no penalty.  The tournament committee quickly affirmed the ruling.  The players agreed on where the ball was, easy since it was no more than 18 inches from the hole, and moved on.  Decision 20-1/6, Ball Marker Moved Accidentally by Player in Process of Marking Position of Ball applies.

After a handful of more routine relief situations, another popped up on the 12th green.  A player had marked his ball, then replaced it when it was his turn.  He stepped aside to survey the line again, then went into his pre-stroke routine.  The ball moved about a quarter of a turn, which he could tell because the alignment line was now off.  He called me over and I informed him that since he had not yet addressed the ball, he was not responsible for the movement of the ball, and he would play it where it came to rest.  He then re-marked and re-aligned the ball and played on.  The relevant decision is, I believe, 18-2b/8: Player Addresses Ball, Steps Away, Lifts Ball and Replaces It; Ball Then Moves.

The most interesting incident occurred near the end of the round.  The 17th hole is a long-ish par three.  One of my players shanked the ball over a line of shrubs bordering the right side of the hole.  Since the area is not marked as a lateral hazard, he hit a provisional.  Before we got there, his coaches and a teammate were there and had found the ball.  It rested on what looked like an old utility road leading to some sort of pump house or the like.  The road was covered with small rocks, one to two inches wide.  I got on the horn.  Nobody had any idea of the area I was talking about, since I'm sure not too many players, particularly college golfers, hit the ball there.  We finally decided that it was indeed a road and the player was entitled to relief.

Here's where it really got interesting.  We determined that the nearest full relief would be on a slope above the road.  The ball would be at least 3-4 inches above the player's feet, and it was muddy.  His coach asked him if he would rather hit there, or remove the rocks behind the ball and play from a level lie.  The clincher:  "We'll get you a new wedge."  The player hit a beautiful 65 yard blind lob to about 15 feet.  I told the coach "Now that's good coaching!"  Unfortunately, the he missed the slippery downhill sidehill putt, but as his teammate said, "I'll bet you'd have been happy with four after that tee shot!"

After that, the 18th was anti-climatic.  Two players went very wide left with their tee shots, and hit provisional balls, but both balls were found and played, and both players made good pars.  All in all, a great learning experience.  There's a saying:  You're as smart as the smartest rules official present, so when in doubt, get on the horn.  I couldn't agree more.