Golf is in a sad place when it is legal for someone to pick up something on TV, missed by the officials regulating the game, and influence the result of a match.
I mean, imagine if those thousands of viewers who saw referee Wayne Barnes miss a forward pass in the buildup to a French try that knocked the All Blacks out of the 2007 Rugby World Cup, had called in to point out the official was wrong. What about a blatant handball, like the one by Diego Maradona that helped Argentina on their way to winning the 1986 Fifa World Cup?
Every weekend we see on-field officials mess up and we armchair experts can replay things endlessly in slo-mo, and see the official has got it wrong.
What sport, professional or otherwise, allows a member of the public to influence the result of a big tournament by phoning in a day after an incident and effect a change?
Lexi Thompson placed her ball incorrectly, probably by a centimetre or two, after marking it on the 17th green during the third round of the ANA Inspiration tournament she was leading. This was the first women’s Major of the year and it subsequently cost the 22-year-old American the title.
Replays show that Thompson did get it wrong, even if it was a tap-in putt and she wouldn’t have benefited from ‘cheating’ by moving the ball a centimetre closer to the hole. Rules officials, playing partners and caddies failed to spot the error and it was left to a TV viewer to call in and alert officials.
By this stage Thompson had already signed her card and merrily teed off in the fourth round the following day with a commanding lead. Then, on the 12th tee, a rules official informed her that she was being penalised four shots: two for incorrectly replacing the ball and another two for signing a wrong scorecard. Common sense tells you she couldn’t have signed for an incorrect score had she not known she was being penalised two shots.
The four-shot penalty eventually cost her a Major title, as she lost in a playoff to Korea’s So Yeon Ryu.
Tiger Woods, a 14-time Major champion himself and a winner 79 times on the PGA Tour, was quick to react to the news, telling his Twitter followers: ‘Viewers at home should not be officials wearing stripes. Let’s go @Lexi, win this thing anyway.’
Women’s world No 1 Lydia Ko was equally outraged: ‘Unbelievable … really need to change and do something about people able to call in!’
One other thing to consider: women’s TV coverage is not nearly as saturated or as broad as the men’s Tours, and had Thompson not been on the first page of the leaderboard, the TV viewer would not have seen her putt out. How many other minor indiscretions take place that the TV viewer doesn’t see? How can golf’s officials punish a professional golfer after the fact, based on a call from a couch potato?
And besides, who actually knows the number they can dial to complain? Is it on a fridge magnet, sitting right there next to those for the emergency services?
– This article first appeared in the May issue of Compleat Golfer, now on sale
