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Professionals getting rules help

Should pros be on their own in rulings or get official help?

  • Pros are on their own to make calls

    Votes: 4 6.3%

  • Pros can get rulings from the officials

    Votes: 59 93.7%
  • Total voters
    63
Lou W

Lou W

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Watching the Sanderson Farms tourney there were a couple of ruling questions to the officials. im of the opinion the players should by this point in their careers know the rules front back and upside down. I’m thinking they should take their relief or whatever without outside help. If they blow it the get assessed the appropriate penalty. What do you think
 
Can’t think of a single other professional sport where players rule their own penalties. Not sure why professional golf should be any different.
 
I disagree. The rules can be quite vague at times so I think rules officials are definitely necessary
 
For odd ball where do I get relief because of TV tower or stands.....sure.
 
This is the most ironic thing ever to me. Some people get so up in arms about amateurs not knowing rules specifically and not playing to the absolute letter of the law…and then pros are out here getting rulings. I voted that they should be on their own, but did so for the sake of my argument lol.
 
That post said:
Can’t think of a single other professional sport where players rule their own penalties. Not sure why professional golf should be any different.
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I considered that but…. Golf is about the slowest sport, one person, one shot at a time. Most others involve teams and a lot of activity going on
 
They should be competent at that level to understand the the rule book back to front , it not like they are new to the game …
l think a couple of things are noteworthy here

1/ They forfeit responsibility to the independence of rules offical so no blame etc is attached if controversial ruling

2/ They as pros will try to stretch interpretation and ruling in their own favour the vast majority of the time . So neutrality of decision is missing

3/Whilst they should, would they? I would say they are slow enough now , the game needs to broadly quicken up … l have a theory that it’s more about personal airtime exposure for sponsorships the longer they are in the lens of viewership
 
Ask Dustin Johnson how he feels about it. I remember I believe last year he was penalized when he thought he was in a sandy area and grounded his club then to find out later that in all the surrounding areas of surface sand his was an actual trap. I know I couldn't tell the difference.
 
It's been proven that some professional golfers don't know, or understand all the usga rules of golf.

They need professional help with those rules.
 
There are pros that take no responsibility in rules. They shouldn’t need an official for a cart path drop.
 
The rules are very complex. I don’t see any issue with being able to ask someone for advice on the rules.
 
MattyD-MPLS said:
There are pros that take no responsibility in rules. They shouldn’t need an official for a cart path drop.
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Agree here. It's when they get "line of sight" relief where it gets dicey. Their fellow playing competitors would probably rather have a rules official tell them they where they can get relief.
 
Golf is complex. I'm okay with asking rules officials.
 
4hourrule said:
Ask Dustin Johnson how he feels about it. I remember I believe last year he was penalized when he thought he was in a sandy area and grounded his club then to find out later that in all the surrounding areas of surface sand his was an actual trap. I know I couldn't tell the difference.
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That was 2010 at Whistling Straits.
 
Isn’t the rule book like 50 pages long and the interpretation of those rules like 3000 pages long? I don’t blame the players needing to ask questions
 
I get why they do it. They're playing for a lot of money and there are cameras on every single thing they do. I like when they don't call an official though and work it out themselves or in the group. There was an official earlier this year or last year so basically told one then to do that. That he didn't see it, so it needed to be decided by the group. I liked that.
 
OldandStiff said:
I get why they do it. They're playing for a lot of money and there are cameras on every single thing they do. I like when they don't call an official though and work it out themselves or in the group. There was an official earlier this year or last year so basically told one then to do that. That he didn't see it, so it needed to be decided by the group. I liked that.
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But no other game get to do that
 
Deezballs said:
But no other game get to do that
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Well when it's done right I think it's one of the great things about golf. No instant replay, no group of officials getting together. Just a group of people who are in competition but respect the game and each other enough to give their honest takes and come to an amicable agreement on how to play it. There's some great moments caught on Thurs-Fri coverage sometimes of guys just being good people and good players.
 
No issues with rules officials, they need something to do with the antennas on their radios.
 
Golf is supposed to be a game of honesty and integrity, so for the most part, calling your own penalties makes sense.

But I'm completely okay with pros asking for help with rules. If I were playing for that kind of money, and there were a situation where I wasn't 100% certain on the rule, I'd ask. Besides, I'd rather someone know that I asked for a ruling from someone with an objective opinion than have people think I was trying to cheat.
 
They need a rules official; because they are always under the camera, and if they mess up a couple of decisions of their own... they will be labeled a cheater... and their name tarnished... maybe forever...
 
We'll if you don't want to allow for rulings during the round, than you sure as hell shouldn't be able to assess penalties once the round is over and the scorecard has been signed and accepted.
 
OldandStiff said:
Well when it's done right I think it's one of the great things about golf. No instant replay, no group of officials getting together. Just a group of people who are in competition but respect the game and each other enough to give their honest takes and come to an amicable agreement on how to play it. There's some great moments caught on Thurs-Fri coverage sometimes of guys just being good people and good players.
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I remember one earlier this year with Matsuyama and Rahm where the rules official asked Rahm what happened and they all agree that Matsuyama hadn't disturbed the ball and it fell into the bunker on it's own.

Shows the sport in a good light IMHO.

A
 
I am OK with professionals asking for assistance on a rule. I am no sports expert but is there any sport that the rules book is so deep, complex and sometimes vague when it comes to interpretation? I am sure me and my playing partners give up the odd stroke where there might be a rule that would have given us relief.
 
I'm group - they should get the help if they need the help. Why else would a course / tournament employ rule officials?
 
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