When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
I took a look at the hundreds of comments on the Padraig video at YouTube, then read the discussion here. What a contrast!
You guys and gals are the best.
First we learned the R&A is open to revisiting the scenario of disqualifications for signing incorrect cards that, at the time players signed them were not incorrect. Now, Mike Davis, Senior Director of Rules and Competitions, confirms to the USGA is "absolutely going to reopen" discussions with the R&A. The Padraig Harrington situation was the final straw.
"We're all bothered by what is a narrow set of circumstances where someone can get the facts right and still be disqualified. In Harrington's situation, he thought ball was replaced and only television is telling us otherwise. He knew the rules, he thought he did everything right, he just didn't know all the facts. So the USGA and R&A will open it up again, but we also have to make sure we don't do something that has domino effect."
Davis was speaking after just returning from R&A meetings in St. Andrews and said emails have already been exchanged between the USGA and R&A on ways to remedy the rule without creating unintended consequences, such as allowing players off the hook for not knowing the rules. Which was not the case in the Harrington scenario.
Forget Padraig, we need the rule changed on scorecard DQ's to protect the viewers at home who have been called every name in the book after the latest call-in violation.
Thankfully, most of the scribes cooled off after their initial tweets about the sheer horror of a viewer witnessing a violation and daring to point it out. They directed their emotions at the rule the USGA and R&A refuse to budge on.
I just want to know how you can replace a ball like that?
Padraig Harrington was DQ'd from Abu Dhabi's HSBC Classic for signing an incorrect card after a viewer spotted this violation after the card was signed.
Here's the video of the violation called in after his round:
But some good news: more practice time!
And apologize profusely, donate your winnings to charity and then beg people to stop bringing it up unless your name is Sandy Lyle. At least, that would be Monty's advice after his Jakarta shenanigans led to him receiving no suspension (and Internet scrubbing of the tape!).
While most like John Huggan are looking ahead to Tuesday's announcement of Jose Maria Olazabal as the next Ryder Cup Captain, Lawrence Donegan reports that it's the day of Elliot Saltman's cheating hearing. Sounds like a he said-he-he said situation.
All have been instructed not to discuss the details of the case but the Observer has established that Saltman faces charges of incorrectly replacing his ball at least five times during the first round of the event in Russia – marking the ball in one position (at "eight o'clock" on its circumference) on the green and replacing in another (at "six o'clock"), marginally closer to the hole.
These alleged infringements were drawn to his attention by his playing partners at the end of the round, after which all three met with Gary Butler, the European Tour rules official in charge that week. After that meeting, Saltman was disqualified. The Scot this week denied any wrongdoing, but in an interview with journalists in Spain last month he indicated that, in the immediate aftermath of the events in Russia, he agreed he had broken the rules. "I accepted what was said at the time because I was in shock at the time and I didn't want to be labelled a cheat. I am sorry now that I didn't stand up for myself,'' he said.
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
