USGA Rule Revision On Call ins

[Golf 'N Gator]

You still have the wrong idea. Only one recent ruling could be affected by this decision, and it does NOT end the call in rules violations. This decision will only affect a very small portion of the call ins which have been so controversial. Yes, it might have prevented Harrington's DQ.... might have, no guarantee. Harrington admitted that he knew his ball had "oscillated". That alone might be enough information for the DQ to still be applied. Each case will be decided on the facts available. Villegas would still have been DQ'ed because his act was something that a player who knows the rules would not have done. It might have saved Michelle Wie when she was caught dropping the ball about 6 inches closer to the hole. Again it depends on how the facts are viewed as to whether she could have known that she was dropping too close to the hole without the assistance of video review. The Craig Stadler towel incident from a couple of decades ago would not be affected by this decision.

This isn't a "Get out of Jail Free" card. The player is still responsible for knowing the rules, and rules violations which are caught by viewers who then contact the Tour will still be considered. Ignorance of the rules will not get the player a free pass. Only a situation where the player could not have reasonably have known that an action occurred which was in breach of a rule will be affected by this decision.

Yes, but it stops some tool from calling in on Sunday and reporting something that happened in the first three rounds, at which if found to be true, resulted in a DQ because the card was signed for those days. Now they just go back and assess the penalty, but the player gets to continue playing the event. This change is huge, and it is right.

 

[Fourputt]

Yes, but it stops some tool from calling in on Sunday and reporting something that happened in the first three rounds, at which if found to be true, resulted in a DQ because the card was signed for those days. Now they just go back and assess the penalty, but the player gets to continue playing the event. This change is huge, and it is right.

You say that like it's automatic. It isn't. In more than 95% of the cases in the past, disqualification would still be the result, even if this decision had been in effect. They don't just automatically assess the stroke penalty unless the facts show that the player could not have been aware that that his action caused a breach. That doesn't mean that he was just unaware of the rule, but that even if he knew the rule that there was no way that he could know that he breached it. Read the examples which are posted with the decision on the USGA website. In most cases disqualification will still be the result of returning an incorrect score, bcause in most cases the player should have known better than to do what he did.

 

[wcueb923]

Yes that is great to read. I'm very happy for that. Now they need to work on the other rules that are just wrong. We are in a different time period, they need to get with the times.

 

[wcueb923]

Yes, but it stops some tool from calling in on Sunday and reporting something that happened in the first three rounds, at which if found to be true, resulted in a DQ because the card was signed for those days. Now they just go back and assess the penalty, but the player gets to continue playing the event. This change is huge, and it is right.

You are absolutely on it . It's Huge