Nicklaus: Let players, not viewers, police penalties

Jack Nicklaus thinks the rules of golf should adhere to a statute of limitations that ends after 18 holes.

“Once the round is over, it should be over. When was the last time you saw them change a pass interference penalty in the NFL the next day?” Nicklaus said Wednesday at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Legends Luncheon at the Ohio Union. The event raised $1.2 million for the Nicklaus Children’s Health Care Foundation and Nationwide Children’s Hospital alliance.

“Once you sign the scorecard, that’s it,” Nicklaus said, “not the next day from (a TV viewer) calling in.”

Nicklaus was referencing the latest golf controversy involving a rules violation. On April 2, Lexi Thompson was docked four strokes at the ANA Inspiration — the LPGA’s first major of the season — the day after a TV viewer emailed the tour after noticing that Thompson had incorrectly marked her ball on a green. Thompson led the tournament by two strokes when a rules official approached her on the 13th tee with news that she would be penalized four strokes. She went on to lose in a playoff.

Nicklaus knows that Thompson was not trying to cheat.

“She marked the ball (wrong). It was so obvious. She was just sloppy,” he said. “I know Lexi. She’s a nice gal and would never do something like that (intentionally). We make mistakes. We’re human.”

Nicklaus is a big believer in players policing themselves.

“We’ve always managed ourselves,” he said. “And if you do something that’s not right, we only have ourselves to live with it. And it will eat away at a guy if he does something. There are things that guys have done and nothing was called and we say, ‘Well, he’s going to have to live with that one.’ ”

Nicklaus has called penalties on himself several times but remains bothered by one time when he did not.

“One has stuck with me. It was the British Open in 1979 and I was in a bunker 50 yards short of the green, up against the face of it,” he said. “Joe Dey was the official in my match and I hit my shot and took some dirt and something hit me on the shoulder. I thought it was the ball. I asked Joe, ‘Did the ball hit me?’ And he said no, it was the dirt. I wasn’t sure if he was just being nice to me, and I always felt if there was one penalty I maybe should have called, it was that one. I never wanted to … give myself the benefit of the doubt. You give the game the benefit of the doubt.”