Poll: What Emergency Lexi Clause Should We Get Tuesday?
/Reports from Golfweek's Alistair Tait and Golf World's Ryan Herrington say something is coming, but what exactly is to be determined.
The R&A and USGA have been working overtime to introduce immediate stopgap measures following Lexi Thompson falling victim to a viewer call in, day-after review and post-card signing penalty. 
From Tait's Golfweek item reviewing the possibilities:
R&A officials refused to comment on the upcoming announcement at a media day at Royal Birkdale ahead of this year’s Open Championship. However, Golfweek understands the governing bodies will implement a decision Tuesday with immediate effect to make sure no player goes through the same experience as Thompson.
The governing bodies could rule that TV viewers cannot call in rules infractions. Alternatively, they could decree that no retrospective penalties can be added once a scorecard has been signed.
From Herrington's Golf World report:
The changes also might include an early implementation of a proposed Rules change where “the player’s reasonable judgement would be upheld even if later shown to be wrong by other information [such as video technology].” This proposal was part of a larger rules modernization plan that the USGA and R&A had announced in March that would potentially got into effect in 2019.
Another issue potentially to be addressed on Tuesday is whether certain penalties can be assessed after a player’s scorecard has been signed and/or a stipulated round has been finished.
I won't be of much help here, but...
--In the DVR and social media era, I'm having a hard time envisioning how we end call-ins on infractions given how easy it is to watch something on replay. Yet that has been the top "ask" from most fans who often forget that some callers are trying to save the player from signing for an incorrect score.
--Therefore the scorecard signing clause seems the most logical fix, until we have a violation that is not caught and the player's performance is forever considered tainted because the penalty was not assessed. Again, a seemingly obvious and wise move until it's not.
--Expediting one element of the 2019 proposed changes seems simple, but something tells me that adding such a strong intent clause to the current rules will create other headaches. For starters: Lexi would have claimed she did not intend to move her ball closer to the hole. Then the 42% or so who think she did violate the rules would forever see her as having gotten away with something.
So on that helpful note, your votes:
**As if the issue isn't complicated enough, Nick Faldo adds this, as reported by Alistair Tait for Golfweek:
“The problem we have is if you are out at 8 o’clock in the morning and there are no TV cameras and nobody watching you and if you are out at 4 or 5 in the afternoon there is a rule difference,” Faldo said. “You can break exactly the same rule or do whatever infringement at two different times of the day, one on TV and one not on television, and you’ll get a different ruling. That’s the issue. They have got to get a level playing field whether somebody is watching you or not. That’s the big key for me.”
