"How much hassle would it be for the PGA Tour to have an official watching the show from either the clubhouse, Ponte Vedra or even their homes?"
/In the wake of the Camilo Villegas WD, that's the question Sal Johnson asks.
They have rules officials at each event, isn't it high time for the PGA Tour to have a rules official watch every moment of the telecast and be the one that spots the problem? Why should Dave Andrews or any fan be the one that spots a problem? Yes under the rules of golf it's the players responsibility to make sure things are in good order on the scorecard before signing it. But after the Roberto De Vicenzo incident at the Masters in 1968 the USGA, Augusta National and then the PGA Tour made a big deal to stop the problem of bad scorecards by putting in scoring tents behind the 9th and 18th holes that are monitored by someone to make sure scores are right. So if they are going through that much hassle, how much hassle would it be for the PGA Tour to have an official watching the show from either the clubhouse, Ponte Vedra or even their homes? Isn't this good common sense?
Consider that we recently learned a player was fined (and subsequently cleared) for picking up a courtesy car in board shorts. He was spotted by a member of the tour staff. Yet no one at the PGA Tour was watching the live telecast from Kapalua and saw Camilo Villegas violate the rules of golf. Impressive!
We know there are monitors in Ponte Vedra who document every f-bomb and other fineable offense, in part by watching the telecasts each day. There's another member of the staff in the television truck working as a tour representative.
Yet, after all of the rules dust-ups there is still no one watching a telecast solely for the purpose of rulings and potential situations that may lead to an incorrect scorecard signing?
They have Vice Presidents of every imaginable shape, size and lightweight job description, yet we can't afford pay members of the rules staff to work a few extra weeks a year from home monitoring telecasts?