For the governing bodies of golf to take over 12 hours to make a decision on Tiger Woods rules violation is just another example of the hypocrisy of these organizations. They rule against long putters but allow courses to become obsolete due to hotter golf balls and metal faced drivers. Why don't they care for long putters, because the putting stroke just doesn't look like golf was meant to be played in their opinion. They say it threatens the integrity of the game.
So here we are at the 2013 Masters and the worlds top player commits a rules violation and signs a card without taking a two stroke penalty. After 12 hours the committee comes up with a rationalization that will make it all right for Tiger to continue even though you and I would have been disqualified (DQ) at any other event.
Do I think Tiger initially knew he was breaking the rule on his drop at #15? Certainly not. In the heat of the moment I would probably have made the same mistake and not gone back on a line with the pin from where the ball actually "entered the water" to make a drop but where it crossed the water. Tiger admitted he dropped his ball ""2 yards behind" where he initially hit his 3rd shot and he was going to "dial it down a little" on the subsequent shot. He was dropping on an incorrect tangent line which gave him an unfair advantage. Even though he had no intent to break the rule, the fact is he did and signed an incorrect scorecard. Automatic DQ!
After signing the scorecard and Tiger realizing he had violated a rule he should have disqualified himself, obviously he did not and the ball was thrown into the committee's court. The committee should have ruled and disqualified Tiger Woods but what ramifications would they now face? Without the games marque player who was on the first page of the leader board in the Masters, Augusta National and CBS would lose millions of $$$$ due to a drop in the TV ratings. With the history at Augusta of not allowing blacks or females membership until recently, no way did they want to stir up that hornets nest again by disqualifying the only black player in the field. So they find a loophole in a relatively new rule that would allow Tiger to compete.
It is the two year old so called HD TV rule 33-7, that allowed the committee to circumvent Tiger's rule violation and now threatens the Integrity of the game of golf with this precedence. Rule 33-7 is for minute movements of the ball that most would not see, not a 6 foot error of ball replacement. The loophole in this rule that was used states "in exceptional individual cases" they can waive a disqualification. The rule didn't apply in this instance! Do you really think that a lessor known player who was at the bottom of the leader board would have gotten this reprieve? The Game of Golf has always held it self to very high standards that even if no one else sees you violate the rules you are bound to call it on ones self. It now appears that you don't even have to know the rules or even attempt to call them on yourself and you will be allowed to play on depending on who you are.
Setting Tiger Woods personal ethics and morals aside, he is the last person I would take a youth golfer to follow at a golf event. His continued profanity and actions during a round of play is the worst example set by ANY professional golfer on tour today for our young golfers to emulate. But the PGA doesn't appear to be noticing his actions and continue to let the Golden Goose act as he wishes. The commentators tell us he is working on his temper but I have seen no signs of any change in his four letter vocabulary. Only yesterday on the 18th hole, when he discovered he had gone past the hole did he drop another F bomb on live TV. Do you think Tiger acts this way in front of his own children?
Tiger had the opportunity to gain back the respect of the golfing world by doing what most every other ethical golfer would do and had done before him by disqualifying himself from further play in the this years Masters. It would have been a shining moment in the history of golf, just as when Bobby Jones called the penalty on himself in the 1925 US Open. It would have set an example for the young golfers coming into the game today why golf is so very special to many of us. Unfortunately he like many others in our society today, take what they can no matter whether they deserve it or not and move on. Come late Sunday afternoon, if Tiger is on the leader board we will see if he has any conscious. I doubt it.
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