The Golfer's Wife

Once Again

Let’s take a look at some recent sports headlines shall we?

Martz Fined $20,000 for Critical Comments of Refs After 49ers’ Loss.
( 49ers offensive coordinator Mike Martz publicly blames the officials for the strange ending of the 49ers’ game against the Arizona Cardinals )

Bengals Deactivate Ocho Cinco For Game Against Steelers
(Ocho Cinco – otherwise known as Chad Johnson – violates team rules and is deactivated for one game. Rumors are he fell asleep during a team meeting and when he was called on it had words with the coach. He is, by all accounts, completely full of himself. )

Kevin Garnett Returns From Suspension To Face Pistons
( Kevin Garnett returns from a one game suspension for throwing a punch at a player on an opposing team )

Vikings Practice Without ‘Williams Wall’.
( Kevin Williams and Pat Williams miss practice. They were meeting with NFL officials to discuss positive tests for banned substances. )

Nothing too out of the ordinary there. Pretty much business as usual in the world of professional sports. At least most professional sports.

Let’s take a look at a couple of other headlines from one particular professional sport.

Hayes Becomes Latest To Cry, ‘What a stupid I am.’
Hayes Turns Himself In For Using Wrong Ball, DQ’d From Qualifier
Golfer J.P Hayes Pays Price For Honesty

J.P Hayes was playing in the second round of PGA Tour qualifying last week. On the 12th hole of his first round his caddy reached into his bag and tossed him a ball. Hayes played two shots with the ball before he realized that it was not the same model of ball he started the round with. He knew this was against the rules, called an official over, and took a two stroke penalty. Then Thursday night in his hotel room he realized that the ball he played also may not have been on the approved list. He had been trying out some prototype balls, and the ball his caddy threw him was one of those prototypes, not a model on the approved list. He called a rules official and explained the situation, and was subsequently disqualified. Which is pretty much what he expected would happen when he made the call.

Here is a quote from Hayes in the first article:

"I certainly don't want to be made out as a hero. I'm just a player that did the right thing.”

In the second article Hayes refuses to place the blame on his caddy:

Hayes, 43, is refusing to blame his caddie for the error, saying he should have spotted the errant ball because it did not have a model name on the seam.

"[The caddie] kind of wanted to take some of the blame, but he knows I'm anal about my equipment," Hayes said, according to the report. "I go through my bag every night. I want to know what's in there. It's almost therapeutic for me.

The third article John Berman makes this comment:

In a world where NASCAR drivers say, "If you ain't cheating, you ain't trying," baseball players take illegal steroids to enhance their performance and coaches make illegal films of their opponents, Hayes could have kept quiet.

and quotes a Sports Illustrated writer:

"The lessons kids are being taught today, when you talk about sports, is how to get away with things in general," said Damon Hack, a senior writer for Sports Illustrated. "Often young players are taught it's not cheating if you don't get caught."

"Golf has a tradition of honor and self-policing," Hack said about the sport's longstanding policy.

As far as golfers brushing off any recognition or praise for self-enforcing the rules, Berman also reminds us:

The great golf legend Bobby Jones once said about the honor code: "You may as well praise a man for not robbing a bank."

And here Jason Sobel discusses Hayes and other recent examples of the honor code.

Once again, as in past posts of this nature, I don’t think any comment from me is necessary. The headlines speak for themselves. I will just say, once again, Golf is about so much more than winning.

You are going to get tired of these kind of posts, I know. But I will keep putting them up anyway. 

Expected Behavior, again.

You've been watching The Masters of course. Lots of things happening. Ian Poulter made an Ace, (hole in one). An Ace at Augusta. He'll remember that for the rest of his life. And how about Gary Player? Hope I'm doing half that good at 72. But there is one thing that happened yesterday that really needs to be pointed out. I'm sure you saw it. But just in case.

First I should mention that, great as he was, Bobby Jones never played golf as a professional. His entire career was spent as an amateur. This was party because back then you really couldn't make a living as a golfer, and partly because he just played for the love of the game. Anyway, when Bobby played the big tournament to win in the US was the US Amateur. Which he won 5 times. More than any other Golfer. In honor of this, every year Augusta invites the following:

US Amateur Champion
US Amateur Runner-up
US Mid-Amateur Champion ( post collegiate amateur players )
British Amateur Champion
US Amateur Public Links Champion ( amateur players who do not have golfing privileges at a private golf club )

The top amateur finisher is awarder a medal ( no money, they're amateurs ). Said medal meaning all most as much as the Green Jacket. If the top amateur doesn't make the cut the medal is mailed to him. If he does make the cut, and plays on the weekend, he and his medal join the winner and the Green Jacket in the Butler Cabin at the end of the tournament. VERY BIG DEAL.

The 2007 US Amateur Runner-up is named Michael Thompson. Thompson started his college career at Tulane, pre-Katrina. After Katrina Tulane had to cut it's golf program, so Thompson moved to the University of Alabama, where he is now a senior. He is, by all accounts, a wonderful young man. He is definitely a good golfer. And as Runner-up, he was invited to The Masters.

During yesterday's round, on the 15th hole, Thompson had a putt for birdie that would have put him at +3 for the tournament, and he would have safely made the cut, assuming he didn't fall apart on the last 3 holes. He put his putter down behind the ball, and then stood up and moved away from the ball. The ball had moved, almost imperceptibly, closer to the hole after he set his putter down. The rules say once the player has grounded his club, if the ball moves before the player has made the backward motion of his stroke, the player takes a one stroke penalty. No one else saw the ball move. The announcers had to watch the replay very closely to see the ball move. And even then they really only saw it because they knew it happened. The comments were 'it just rolled off a dimple', and 'a gnat just pushed off it'. In other words, if Thompson hadn't stood up and moved away, no one would have known the ball had moved. But the ball did move, and Thompson knew it moved, and he called the penalty on himself. He then missed the putt, and instead of a birdie he walked off the hole with a bogey. He was probably, understandably, a little discombobulated by the whole thing, and made bogeys on both 16 and 17. He finished at 7 over par and missed the cut, and the chance to play on the weekend, and the chance to be top amateur.

As mentioned previously, this is expected behavior. There is a little bit of difference between this and the previously mentioned incident. Thompson is an amateur, and this is The Masters. So while what Stewart Cink did elicited only a few comments, what Thompson did got quite a few comments. All of them basically saying the same thing. That Thompson had handled himself beautifully and shown the expected integrity that would make him a great golfer. And he earned himself TV coverage of his last 3 holes. Which I'm sure he would gladly have traded for making the cut.

Once again I won't comment any more on this except to say, compare this to the 'expected behavior' in other sports. And to say that if the Fates have any sense of justice at all, at some future date Michael Thompson will win The Masters.

One other note: As pointed out in the comment to this post, this past weekend the Joint Rules Committee of the Royal and Ancient and the USGA changed the rule that caught Stewart Cink.

Rule 13-4a, exception 2

The Zurich Classic was played in New Orleans this past weekend. In Saturday's round, on the 15th hole, Stewart Cink's tee shot landed very close to a sand trap. He stepped into the sand trap as he looked over his shot, then stepped out and hit the ball. Said ball landed in another sand trap 180 yards further up the fairway. Cink's caddy raked the sand trap he had stood in, and they walked up to his ball. Cink hit his shot out of the sand trap and played on. At the end of the round he signed his card.

The next morning he was talking with Zach Johnson about some of the sillier rules in golf. Zach mentioned Rule 13-4a. This rule says that a player can't test the condition of a hazard, or of any similar hazard. With regards to sand traps ( which are considered a hazard ), what this means is, when you land in a sand trap you can't take practice swings to test the sand. To see how heavy it is, if it's wet, or dry and hard, or how deep it is. You can't pick up the sand in your hand. You can't kick it around with your feet. In short you can't do anything that would tell you about the consistency of the sand. You just make your best guess, based on experience, and hit the ball. The part about 'similar surface'  means you can't test the surface of another sand trap, one that your ball is not in, on the same hole. Rule 13-4a has several exceptions. Here they are, straight from the rules:

Exceptions:

    1. Provided nothing is done that constitutes testing the condition of the hazard or improves the lie of the ball, there is no penalty if the player (a) touches the ground or loose impediments in any hazard or water in a water hazard as a result of or to prevent falling, in removing an obstruction, in measuring or in marking the position of, retrieving, lifting, placing or replacing a ball under any Rule or
    (b) places his clubs in a hazard.

    2. After making the stroke, if the ball is still in the hazard or has been lifted from the hazard and may be dropped or placed in the hazard, the player may smooth sand or soil in the hazard, provided nothing is done to breach Rule 13-2 with respect to his next stroke. If the ball is outside the hazard after the stroke, the player may smooth sand or soil in the hazard without restriction.

    3. If the player makes a stroke from a hazard and the ball comes to rest in another hazard, Rule 13-4a does not apply to any subsequent actions taken in the hazard from which the stroke was made.

Got that?  Hope so, because I'm not sure I do. Anyway.

After this conversation Stewart Cink started thinking. He though about 2 things. First, raking the sand is considered testing it. Second, his caddy raked the first sand trap before he hit his shot out of the second sand trap. Stewart figured that the fact that his caddy raked the sand trap before Stewart hit his second shot broke the rule based on exception #2. Apparently if his caddy had waited until Stewart hit his second shot THEN raked the sand trap everything would have been fine. But by raking it before he was 'testing the condition of the hazard' and he could have passed any useful information on to Stewart before he hit his next shot. So what he should have done is walk with Stewart the 180 yards up to his ball, watched him hit it out of the sand trap, walked 180 yards back to the previous sand trap, rake it, then walk the who knows how many yards back up to where ever Stewart's second shot landed. At which point Stewart probably would have been given a warning for delaying play.

In any case, after talking with Zach, Stewart went to the rules officials and asked about the rule, and sure enough, he had broken it. Had he known he had broken the rule during the round he could have taken a two stroke penalty and played on Sunday. But he didn't know, and he had signed his card. Since he should have had the two stroke penalty he had signed an incorrect score card, which is an automatic disqualification. Meaning Stewart had to leave the course, and didn't finish the tournament.

If you watched the tournament on Sunday ( as we did here at The Household ) as Stewart was driven off the course you would have heard the announcers say that is was a confusing rule with all those exceptions, that it was a tough break for Stewart, and that probably the rule needs to be changed. What you did NOT hear was anyone suggesting that just maybe the smart thing for Stewart to have done was keep his thoughts to himself, and finish the tournament. Or anyone saying Gosh what a stand up guy Stewart was for calling the rule on himself, what a guy, good for him.

So in this day and age of athletes of various sports having their names in news paper headlines for drug use ( both performance enhancing and otherwise ), bad behavior on and off the field of play, and even for criminal acts, I give you this little side note to the tournament with only two comments.

Stewart Cink called the rule violation ON HIMSELF, fully understanding the consequences of doing so. And everyone involved treated this not as some errant do-goodery by a guy who could've gotten away with it, but as the EXPECTED behavior of a member of the PGA tour. And above all as the expected behavior of A Golfer.