Is it time to ignore armchair referees?

LAST Sunday, and not for the first time in professional golf, a complaint from a television viewer resulted in a player being penalised four strokes, which effectively cost her the first Major of the ladies season.

LPGA star Lexi Thompson was approached by officials during the 12th hole of her final round at the ANA Championships in California, about an infringement to the rules during her third round, 24 hours previously. Her ‘crime’ was incorrectly replacing her ball after marking it on the green, less than a centimetre from where she should have marked it. Following the complaint from the TV viewer, rules officials watched a replay of the incident and slapped her with a four-shot penalty, two for the offence and two for signing for the wrong score.

Okay, you can say that she was lucky because under the old rules she should have been disqualified for signing for the wrong score but she wasn’t aware of the infringement and signed her card in good faith for the score that she believed she had.

So, instead of leading the tournament (which she was by two shots) at the time the official approached her, she now found herself two behind, but to her great credit she fought back to get into a play-off, which she lost on the first hole, costing her a serious amount of money.

I hope that whoever complained is satisfied with themselves because it’s not like she deliberately broke the rules. I’m not for one minute condoning the breaking of the rules of golf or saying that players shouldn’t be penalised for it, but I am saying that armchair referees should be completely ignored.

Golf is a game of honour and is largely played by people who will call a foul upon themselves if they do happen to break the rules. Yes, there are cheats in the game but most of us play by the rules and I think it’s very wrong that fans are allowed to act as referees and report infringements like on Sunday last.

Can you imagine if fans were allowed to do this in the GAA ? The closing minutes of the 2015 All-Ireland final come to mind straight away.

There have been so many incidents of these armchair referees in golf down through the years but I suppose the most famous was Tiger Woods at the Masters.

A viewer complained that Tiger took an incorrect penalty drop and he was retrospectively slapped with a two-shot penalty, but what made it all the more controversial was that he should have been disqualified for signing for an incorrect score but the Masters Committee, for whatever reason, didn’t apply the correct punishment.

The great Peter Alliss said in a recent interview that in his opinion professional golfers are very ignorant of the rules and if the top 100 players in the world were asked to sit an exam on the rules of golf, less than 5% of them would pass it.

Maybe that’s the fault of the system, and perhaps a rigorous test on the rules should be compulsory when applying for a Tour card might sort that out, but I also feel that some of golf’s rules are a bit draconian and gaining less than a centimetre of advantage when you can hit the golf ball over three hundred yards really doesn’t matter, does it?

Like I have already said, the clear majority of golfers will call a foul upon themselves and it’s time that these sad individuals who sit down in front of televisions looking for rules infringements are ignored for once and for all.