Golf is a funny sport.
Often referred to a as a nice long walk ruined by a little white ball, it now borders on being a great sport ruined by some terrible rules.
No sport holds its rules closer to it’s heart than the game of golf. Sacred almost in nature, they are strictly up held and self-enforced like in no other sport.
But it is too a point where they are cutting off their nose to save their face.
There have been many examples over the years where the absurdity of the game’s rules has become the bigger story than a tournament — which is a worst case scenario no matter what the venture.
The latest was this past Sunday when Dustin Johnson — who had recovered from blowing a fourth round lead at the U.S. Open to find himself in contention on the final day of the PGA Championship — was cornered off by a PGA official after sinking a putt to join a playoff and told he was being hit with a two-stroke penalty for grounding his club in a bunker.
Under normal circumstances this would have been no big deal. It is a well known rule, used at every course and in every tournament the world over. The issue is for this tournament the amendment that was made to the rule, underlining that sand in the wasteland area of Whistling Straights was considered a bunker.
Johnson never argued and took the penalty like a champ, acknowledging that it was his responsibility to know the ground rules of the course.
That’s all and good, except when you consider the legitimacy of the rule itself.
There are so many ‘bunkers’ or sand traps at this course that despite numerous attempts to count them, they can only guesstimate that there are more than 1,200. It is too the point where the course designer put a large one behind the 15th hole tee box for no other reason than because he could. Many of the bunkers are in the wasteland area, and are so small that when Johnson was informed of his infraction his immediate response was “What bunker?”
The wasteland area — what would be considered the deep rough at most courses — is where the bulk of the crowd mingled and watched and walked. These so called bunkers were not marked and certainly were not manicured or raked like any real bunker is. They appear as a patch of sand amongst swails of tall grass.
Again the rule was executed properly according to the letter of the law, but it is a rule that didn’t make sense in the first place and cost Johnson a shot at winning the tournament.
But then golf is full of these rules.
Michelle Wie was disqualified from an LPGA event last year because she momentarily forgot to sign her score card, had barely left the designated scoring area, was notified shed hadn’t signed it. and then returned to sign the card, only it was too late. Her second place finish was wiped from the record books.
Then earlier this year Brian Davis was facing Jim Furyk in a playoff at the Verizon Heritage Classic, trying to win his first PGA tournament, his tee shot landed him in a mess off the green. In his attempt to put the ball on the green, he grazed a weed in his backswing. The swing was a violation of the rule of moving loose impediments and resulted in a two-stroke penalty he called on himself, thus handing the win to Furyk. This all despite the weed not affecting his stroke or the result of his shot.
I am sure there is a good reason for these rules, but in these cases it runs right up against the spirit of the game.
Ask Ilya Kovalchuk and the New Jersey Devils about contracts that violate the spirit of a collective bargaining agreement and find out how that worked out for them.
It is almost Ironic that with the tournament ending on Sunday the NHL was busy Wednesday and today test driving possible new rules and adjustments to the game of hockey.
It was the NHL of course that botched the 1999 Stanley Cup Final when Brett Hull scored the cup winning goal in triple overtime with his foot in the crease. The NHL turned a blind eye to this, pumped out an obscure excuse why the goal should stand and not long afterwards altered the rule to include a provision where the action would have to impeded the goalies’ ability to stop the puck for the goal to be called back.
The putt that Johnson had sank on the 18th hole to join the playoff group was for bogey.
Had he sunk his par putt then the PGA would be forced with the issue of taking a major championship away from Johnson rather than just the opportunity.
At the very least it should force a revision of the rules to preserve the spirit of the game.
Unfortunately, I know the PGA won’t. Their rules are too important to them.
jaldrich@www.reddeeradvocate.com