This
time of year is made specifically for Top 10 Lists, and the Rules of Golf are
not exempt from ranking and picking apart the top 10 incidents from 2012. This year there were lots of little
movements and loud uproars and a couple of the usual “well duh!” moments. Here is my list of the top 10 Rulings
for 2012:
10. Be
Careful What You Brush For
2012 Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, Round 2, Hole 9 – Rory
McIlroy was penalized 2 strokes for brushing sand off his line of play on the
fringe. The penalty falls under
Rule 13-2 for improving the line of play by removing sand. Much of the confusion over the ruling
is that you are permitted to remove loose impediments on your line of play
without penalty. Sand and loose
soil, however, are loose impediments only on the putting green by
definition.
McIlroy had mixed emotions, both admitting his guilt and
questioning the common sense of the Rule. “Just made a very stupid mental
mistake on 9 that cost me 2 strokes,” he said, “It’s a bit of a weird
rule. You can move a loose
impediment like a divot out of your line.
You can’t move sand. It’s a
tricky rule.” Well, a lot of the Rules are tricky, Rory, but if you’re going to
be number 1, you better know them.
9. Change
Without Change
2012 Wells Fargo Championship, Round 2, Hole 11 – Ryan Moore
was penalized one stroke after his ball moved slightly after he had addressed
it on the putting green of the 11th hole at Quail Hollow. This incident highlighted the new
change to Rule 18-2b which now includes an Exception where players can escape
penalty if they didn’t cause their ball to move. Unfortunately for Moore, his situation did not fall under
that Exception and he was still subject to penalty under 18-2b (and the ball
must be replaced). “I thought that
was the whole point of the Rule change after Webb Simpson’s incident last year,
“ Moore said, “…because I certainly did not make the ball move and I thought that
was the whole point of the Rule change.”
Well Ryan, the point of the Rule change was for situations
where the player clearly did not make the ball move, like sudden gusts of wind
or other elements. A new Decision
accompanied the Rule change (18-2b/11), which specifically states that gravity
is not a force to be considered when trying to apply the new Exception to a
ruling. The ultimate result of
this incident was one of the better Rules related quotes of the year: “It’s
unfortunate that they somehow changed the Rules without changing it. I don’t know how they did that.”
8. Put
it Back…No YOU put it back
2012 PGA Championship, Final Round, Hole 9 – My favorite
ruling of the year raised more eyebrows at the insane idiosyncrasies of the
Rules than at the ruling itself.
On the 9th hole, Carl Pettersson hit his ball right. A small boy grabbed the ball and moved
it. After realizing his mistake
the boy put it back close to the correct spot, but not quite correct. Upon arrival on the scene, another
spectator helped Rules Official Brad Gregory and Pettersson out by replacing
the ball in the exact spot. There
was only one problem: under Rule
20-3, only the player, his partner (not applicable here) or the person who
originally lifted the ball can replace it. The helpful spectator was none of those and so Brad Gregory
had Pettersson lift the ball slightly and replace it himself. It seemed silly to those watching on
national television, and would have seemed sillier if they had mentioned
Pettersson would’ve received a one stroke penalty had he not followed Gregory’s
instructions, but the Rules are the Rules.
7. To
Be, Or Not To Be…A Bunker
2012 PGA Championship, Kiawah Island (Ocean Course) –
Although the announcement did not come as a shocker to golf Rules insiders,
when the PGA released the Condition of Competition that all sandy areas at the
Ocean Course would be played as “through the green” the golf world started
hooting and hollering. Had Dustin
Johnson not been penalized two years prior for a situation that could have been
averted through use of the same Condition, this may have passed unnoticed. The PGA had used this Condition every
time they had come to Kiawah, most notably in the 1991 Ryder Cup.
Throughout the championships, TV commentators kept sharing
their shock at seeing players take practice swings in the sand and pointing out
their own slip-ups at calling the sandy areas “bunkers” because they were no
longer bunkers under the Rules.
Frankly, if TV commentators pointed out all the missed terminology they
use on a regular basis they wouldn’t have any time to say anything else. All-in-all, it was just another
conversation piece for the Rules of Golf, for better or worse.
6. Better
to be Lucky than Good
2012 Crowne Plaza Invitational (Colonial), Final Round, Hole
18 – The record books will forever show that Zach Johnson won at Colonial by a
nail-biting one stroke over Jason Dufner.
The part of the story that leaves out is the penalty that made it that
close. After blasting out from the
bunker, Zach Johnson marked his ball and moved it a putter head to get out of
Jason Dufner’s line of putt. At
the time he had a three-stroke lead.
Zach then made the putt, but he had forgotten to move his ball marker
back to the original spot. This
gave him a two-stroke penalty under Rule 20-7c for playing from a wrong
place.
The big question everyone wondered is why no one reminded
Zach to replace his marker, but Zach took it like a man and owned up, “I just
feel very lucky. That’s all. As I said earlier there are a number of
adjectives that I’m calling myself right now, and lucky is the biggest one I
can think of.” Lucky that he played well enough to have a three-stroke lead
coming into the 72nd hole.
5. The
High-Definition Empire Strikes Again
2012 U.S. Senior Open, First Round, Hole 5 – During the
first round of the U.S. Senior Open Championship Corey Pavin was assessed a
two-stroke penalty for a breach of Rule 18-2b when his ball moved after address
and he failed to replace it. The
catch was that it took some serious slow-motion film to even determine the
breach had occurred. Looking at
the video, the ball moved about half an inch downward after Pavin soled his
club lightly in the rough behind the ball. That in itself is a one-stroke penalty under 18-2b. The additional stroke comes because he
was supposed to replace the ball at its original spot and he did not.
The whole situation was well handled as Jeff Hall from the
USGA took Pavin to the control room and showed him the footage of the ball
moving. The best part was Pavin’s
instant acceptance and high class reaction to the ruling, “That’s the rules,
and they were enforced properly, and I saw it on tape, and it's definitely what
happened. The ball moved. I didn’t
think it did when I was out on the golf course…I was glad they brought it to my
attention.” He revealed himself to be one of the great guys in golf as
controversy surrounding slow-mo cameras and the Rules grew once again.
4. Did
I do that?
2012 Open Championship, Final Round, Hole 7 – After all the
controversy surrounding moving golf balls in the past two years, the entire
world let out a collective, “Uh oh,” as we watched Adam Scott’s ball roll down
the slope a few yards from its original spot. Even more surprising to most was what could best be
described as a “No Call” as the walking Rules Official determined that there
was no penalty.
Adam Scott had taken a few practice swings fairly close to
the ball. He walked away and about
10 seconds later, when he was a few yards away from the ball it began to roll. He had not addressed the ball so he
would only incur a penalty under 18-2a if it was determined that his practice
strokes had caused the ball to move.
Much to Paul Azinger’s and Senior R & A Official Peter Dawson’s
dismay up in the booth, the walking official determined that he had not caused
the ball to move. There was no
penalty and Scott had to play the ball from its new location.
The two most notable issues with this incident were 1)
television’s absolute incompetence at covering the Rules as it showed a graphic
about 18-2b, which was not the Rule involved, alongside Azinger’s ranting and,
2) Peter Dawson throwing his Rules official under the bus on national
television – ouch. After careful
consideration I think the Rules community agrees that it was a good “no call,”
but it was not handled as well as it should have been for the final group in
the final round of a major. It
would have been a major uproar had Scott gone on to win.
3. Not
Having a Good Time
2012 Sybase Match Play Championship, Semi-Final Match, Hole
12 – Morgan Pressel thought she had just won the 12th hole to go 3 up
only to find out from the Official Timer, the late Doug Brecht, that she had
missed her time by 39 seconds on the 12th hole. It was a loss of hole penalty and the
resulting 2 hole swing left her 1 up.
Pressel ended up losing the match to Azahara Munoz 2 and 1, and Munoz
won the Sybase Match Play the next day.
Although both players had been warned about slow play at the
9th hole, it was clear to everyone that Munoz was the slow player of
the group and was solely responsible for holding the group back. Unfortunately, it was Pressel who
exceeded her allotted time several holes later. Pressel proceeded to increase the tension after
accusing Munoz of touching her line of putt on the 15th hole, which
would have been a loss of hole penalty under Rule 16-1a, except Tour officials
could find no evidence of such a breach.
Pressel was fuming after the round and when asked for comment she was
heard saying, “Not a chance.”
The golf world had a mixed reaction. Some were glad that a major Tour was
finally penalizing players for slow play, and just as many were upset that the
Tour would enforce pace of play in such a match-altering manner. “It’s an unfortunate situation,“ said
Heather Daly-Donofrio, the Senior Vice President of Tour Operations. “This is one
of those days where it is very tough to be an LPGA official. It’s not an easy thing to deliver a
pace of play penalty to a player in a situation like this.”
2. Leaf
Litter
2012 PGA Championship, Final Round, Hole 1 – He didn’t find
out until the fourth hole, but Carl Pettersson had caused a leaf to move during
the backswing for his stroke at his ball lying in the hazard on the first
hole. Under Rule 13-4c that is a
two-stroke penalty for moving a loose impediment in a hazard when your ball
lies in the same hazard.
Slow-motion video revealed that he had in fact brushed the grass during
his backswing and whether directly or indirectly that movement had caused a
small leaf to flutter. The golf
world was furious that such a small action could result in a two-stroke penalty
that could have such a serious impact on the result of the championship.
Pettersson was unhappy for a different reason. He had checked about his rights before
the stroke, “I double checked with the official to make sure I could brush the
grass as long as I didn’t put any weight on the ground with the clubhead, and
he said sure. I wish he would have
mentioned the leaves, too. I was
just trying to hit the ball. I
didn’t even think twice about it.”
Many people questioned the nature of the Rule suggesting that no
significant advantage was gained from his action, but unfortunately for
Pettersson, that’s not what the Rule says.
1. Inter-touchdown-ception!
November 28, 2012 from the USGA and R&A – The verdict is
still out on the potential impact of the anchoring ban that was announced at
the end of November. The
controversy that has surrounded this issue for the entire year makes it worthy
of the number one spot for 2012’s Top 10 Rulings.
The new Rule 14-1b, if confirmed, will not go into effect
until January 1, 2016 at the next Rules change. The announcement came and officially divided the golf world,
particularly after the PGA of America’s President wrote a letter pleading with
the ruling bodies to reconsider the ban.
The USGA’s Mike Davis helped make the announcement and stated that the
new Rule is not based on specific data or any potential advantage anchoring
might give a player. “Our conclusion is
that the Rules of Golf should be amended to preserve the traditional character
of the golf swing by eliminating the growing practice of anchoring the club,”
Davis said.
Basically, the ruling bodies saw something they didn’t like and will
have it eliminated in 2016, but until then the controversy will continue with
players who legally use the anchored stroke. In an incident at Tiger’s tournament, the World Challenge, a
heckler called Keegan Bradley a “cheater” and prompted a swift response from
the USGA who called the act “deplorable.”
Since the new Rule is not officially confirmed, there is still hope for
many that the ruling bodies will reconsider, but it is highly unlikely. I’ve personally said my piece on the
issue, but we all know that this isn’t over by a long shot.
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