Fairness sought in golf viewer rules call-ins
FILE - In this June 30, 2010, file photo, PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem answers a question during a news conference at the AT&T National golf tournament at Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pa. Finchem is asking the USGA to review the Rules of Golf after two prominent players were disqualified for incorrect scorecards. Credit: AP
PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem would like to see more common sense used in enforcing penalties for rules infractions phoned in by fans watching on television.
But he said yesterday that halting their input completely is "not an option." "We like the fact that people call in. We like the fact people who watch the telecasts get excited about something they see," Finchem said. "We don't want to turn those people off. We want to accept the information and deal with it . . . It is just a question of how the rule is applied," he said.
Finchem said he discussed the topic in a meeting with members of the USGA executive committee in Phoenix on Friday after television viewers called in violations by Camilo Villegas in Hawaii and Padraig Harrington in Abu Dhabi in recent weeks. Both initially were assessed two-shot penalties, but because officials were notified after the round, each was disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard.
The first question is whether it's appropriate to disqualify a player for signing a scorecard "when you had no reason to know you were signing a bad card," Finchem said. "There needs to be fairness and common sense to the rule." Finchem wants the PGA to follow the USGA's lead and he expects there will be "a few, little, small" changes to the rules. - AP
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