BRENDAN JAMES
I HAVE to confess that after playing golf for more than 35 years I do not know all the Rules of Golf. I know the basics – you know, those rules that you come across every round or two, depending on how well you play.
Water hazards, lateral hazards, out-ofbounds, lost ball, provisional ball, moving ball … they’re a snap. Given there are no rabbits or wombats where I play regularly, I don’t see the need to know the ins and outs of the procedure for taking relief from a hole made by a burrowing animal. If, however, as Murphy’s Law suggests that I do happen to hit into a hole made by a burrowing animal, I will seek guidance from the rules book in my bag.
The fact that I actually carry an official rules book in my golf bag shows I am at least willing to learn more about the rules. If anything it would certainly please my late, great uncle Frank. Uncle Frank was a kind, gentle soul who loved the game of golf. He loved every aspect of golf, including the rules. In fact, he was so passionate about the rules of golf that it wouldn’t surprise me if he used to sit up in bed at night reading the book from cover-to-cover. Whenever the R&A made a rule change and new rules books were issued, you could guarantee he would be one of the first at his club to have a copy of the new tome. He used to shudder at my lack of knowledge of the finer details of rules book. Uncle Frank had been an officer in the Australian Army during World War II and then spent more than 30 years in the public service, so I am not understating it when I say he was a stickler for the rules … any rules. The slightest mention that some of the Rules of Golf were a bit silly and he would defend them simply by saying “the rules are the rules”.
Indeed they are. But in recent years we have seen some rules incidents at the highest levels of the game that have shone a spotlight on our sport that, I have no doubt, caused the wider community to sit back and laugh at golf and all of us that love and play the game. Even my old uncle Frank might be moved to concur that the rigidity of the rules blinded officials when common sense should have prevailed. Heaven knows what he might make of the dropping from kneeheight … but I digress. What would have been interesting was the after-dinner conversation with him surrounding Matt Kuchar and his blatant attempt to almost bully a free drop out of an official at the recent Memorial Tournament.
In case you missed it, Kuchar hit his tee shot on the par-4 17th and his ball finished at the end of a pitch mark he, and later a rules official, determined was not his own. He then tried to convince PGA Tour rules official, Robby Ware, he should be granted relief because his ball had created a ‘second’ pitch mark that overlapped with the original … PLEASE! Not happy with Ware’s decision to refuse a drop, he called in a second official who backed up Ware’s decision. Clearly unhappy, and after nearly eight minutes of deliberation, Kuchar hit his shot just off the green and eventually holed his putt for par. Kuchar’s behaviour was disappointing on a number of levels. But trying to hoodwink two rules officials to gain an advantage when every person on the planet could see he didn’t have a case, was disgraceful.
Yes, golf does have a lot of rules and regulations. Most of them are a part of the traditions of the game and are the foundations on which the game has survived and succeeded for more than five centuries. Kuchar, it would seem, neither respects or appreciates that fact.