Padraig: Don't Bother Changing The DQ Rule

Interesting comments from Padraig Harrington in an unbylined Irish Times story regarding the DQ rule for signing an incorrect card.

“It’s going to be a difficult rule to change, and it’s not as clear cut as people think to make a change of a rule like that,” Harrington said yesterday. “It would have to be a tough sub-committee to sit on, to figure out what would be the right rule change.

“There’s a lot of things to consider like the halfway cut on the Friday evening, and you have to know positions of everyone, and on Saturday you have to know your position based on the fact you’re attacking or defending a lead.

“So more than just having to sign your card, you need good reason to change the rule. Whether the ball moves a millimetre today, is an inch next week, or five inches another week, it’s just going to be a tough rule to change.

“The rule has probably been there for a hundred years now. It’s there for good reason, so it’s easier to talk about it than to actually change it.”

It is going to be a complicated task to create wording that somehow exonerates someone like Harrington versus someone like Villegas who did not know a rule. Like he says, that's one sub-committee I wouldn't want to sit on.