The Rules are the Rules
Man I hate, that phrase.
In the 2003 British Open Jesper Parnevik and Mark Roe were both disqualified after they forgot to switch scorecards at the beginning of the round, and therefore even though their scores were correctly recorded, because of the simple fact that their cards were labeled with each other’s name, they were both guilty of turning in an incorrect scorecard.
I thought that it was an extremely stupid ruling, and I got into quite a long and heated discussion on one of the golf forums with another poster who I found out later is an attorney (no wonder he was such a staunch rules defender) and who was also a member of the Leith Society. (“Society” should be your first clue as to what these guys think of themselves .. If you’re an anti-authority type, like I am, you’ll get a chuckle out of visiting their web site and and even more fun at clicking on their “apply for membership” button and reading their requirements . .. but once again I digress).
Well lo and behold the U.S.G.A. has now changed the rule / amended their decisions, whatever the techno-babble is for their government-like process to change rules that obviously don’t work or make any sense :
“The latest Decisions book also gives a Committee the ability to help the player who has signed for the correct score, but on another player’s score card.
It’s too bad that it took four years for the “bow ties” to wake up and use some common sense. They could have easily made the same decision on the spot when it mattered, but apparently they don’t have a rule or procedure that allows them to make a decision like that when it can be useful.
Welcome to the Twilight Zone …err Plane Earth.
Mike