Thought for the Day:
Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment
The smile of the Tiger
While watching the Masters it suddenly occurred to me what has been missing from tournament golf for the last 17 months or so – Tiger Woods’ smile. Never the most gabby or light-hearted of competitors, he could nevertheless turn on that high-octane grin and in consequence his face, and those of the people around him, would light up. With his private life becoming public knowledge, and having lost his wife, day-to-day contact with his children and, it seems, his golf swing, it is no surprise that this most reserved and guarded of men could find little to smile about when he started, and continued, to play like a donkey. So even if it is only making a sporadic appearance, for me at least, it’s good to see the smile back.
The Eagle has landed
A new movie, The Eagle, opened in Britain a few weeks ago. It is about a Roman legion that is defeated, and loses its standard, the eagle, in the process. The title has had to be changed from the original The Eagle of the Ninth because, as director Kevin Macdonald explains: The American distributor did some testing and audiences were like: “What have Romans got to do with golf?”’
Further comment would be superfluous.
Common sense breaks out
The R&A and the USGA have, in their own words: ‘announced a new interpretation of the Rules that apply in limited circumstances not previously contemplated by the Rules of Golf where disqualifications have been caused by score card errors identified as the result of recent advances in video technologies.’
A revision to Decision 33-7/4.5 addresses the situation where a player is not aware he has breached a Rule because of facts that he did not know and could not reasonably have known before returning his score card. At the discretion of the committee, the player still receives the penalty for breaking the Rule but is not disqualified.
In plain language, this means that, for example, if a super slow-mo camera shows that a player coming out of greenside rough hit the ball twice, which he could not possibly have realised at the time, he will add on the penalty stroke but not be disqualified. And if similar technology shows that he touched a few grains of sand with his club at the top of his backswing on a wall of the bunker, the same common sense would prevail. Also, if someone replacing his ball on the green sees it move but is certain it returns to its original position because the logo appears to settle in the same place, and again he’s proved wrong by sophisticated camera work, he would be penalised but not DQ’d. In all these cases, even if the unwitting and unknown infringement came to light after the player had signed his scorecard, the penalty stroke/s would be applied retrospectively but the player would not be thrown out of the event.
However, disqualification still applies for breaches that arise from ignorance of the Rules. The statement announcing the changes said: ‘This decision reinforces that it is still the responsibility of the player to know the Rules, while recognising that there may be some rare situations where it is reasonable that a player is unaware of the factual circumstances of a breach.’
This new ruling does not eliminate all of the unfairness that surrounds the issue of disqualification but at least it’s a start.
Ballesteros Challenge
Because Masters Sunday fell on Seve Ballesteros’ birthday, he was in a lot of our thoughts so it seems appropriate to mention a special event in his name in which you may be able to take part. Seve is calling on golfers across the UK to help beat brain cancer by asking their club to take part in the National Golf Club Challenge 2011. It will take place on Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th July to help raise much needed funds for the Seve Ballesteros Foundation, which is working together with Cancer Research UK to fund lifesaving research into brain cancer.
It is hoped that hundreds of golf clubs and thousands of golfers across the UK will come together and host their own fundraising Stableford competitions. The top scoring golf clubs will then compete in the national final in September at The Shire London – the only Seve Ballesteros designed golf course in the UK.
Ballesteros said: ‘By signing up to the challenge, clubs all over the UK can enjoy the sport while raising money for brain cancer research. There are more than five million golfers in the UK and if just a small proportion of those got involved, we’d be well on our way to reaching our target and making a real impact on the lives of people like me who are diagnosed with brain cancer.’ If you or your club is interested, visit www.thesevechallenge.com
Quote of the week
Golf appeals to the idiot and the child in us. Just how childlike golfers become is proven by their frequent inability to count past five.
John Updike