A triumph for fairness over farce
Common sense and the rules of golf have always been such complete strangers walking on either side of the fairway that the idea they’d ever find common ground seemed fanciful.
But, glory be, they finally came together during the final round of the Irish open where the chief referee of the European Tour took a stance that will hopefully allow us to chart a more logical path in the future.
not that everyone saw it this way. Andy mcFee duly got it in the neck from some old school commentators for not penalising Jon Rahm two strokes for incorrectly replacing his ball on the sixth green. Listening to Brandel Chamblee, chief noisemaker on the Golf Channel, made you wonder if the recent changes to the rules had passed him by completely.
In an effort to end some of the inequitable penalties handed out when a mistake has been made but there has clearly been no intent to deceive, a new decision introduced in April applied two new standards, one of which was relevant in this instance.
It says that a player should not be held to the same standard of precision sometimes provided by video technology. If the actions are deemed reasonable in seeking to replace the ball in the correct spot then that judgment will be accepted, even if television pictures later prove the player got it wrong.
That’s surely what happened in this case. Rahm made a mistake, but not a malicious one that compromised the integrity of the competition. Having marked his ball to the side to get out of the way of playing partner Daniel Im, he got his angles wrong and replaced it nearer the hole. By doing so, he turned perhaps a 15-inch gimme into a 14-inch tap-in.
Is that unreasonable behaviour? Chamblee argued it was, and he’s certainly right by the old standard. But is that the way forward?
In the first application of the rule change, mcFee did the game a service on Sunday, although it is clearly going to take some time to convert everyone to the new way of thinking.
By doing so, the story remained the emergence of the game’s next superstar rather than yet another rules fiasco.
Common sense and the rules of golf leaving a tournament wrapped in each other’s arms. Whoever thought they’d see that? Thanks to everyone who pointed out my mistake last week and, yes, I now know in no uncertain terms that Portstewart is in Londonderry, not antrim. My favourite was the marshal, out on the course on saturday, who was desperate to have a word. ‘Mr Lawrenson, I always enjoy your column,’ he began, before adding his unarguable rejoinder. ‘But your geography is sh**e.’