Inspired by Thompson's rule entanglement, ruling bodies issue new Decision

Golf’s governing bodies announced Tuesday a new standard by which rules officials should rely more on players and their integrity than technology, including high-definition video.

The USGA and R&A jointly revealed Decision 34-3/10, which offers guidance to officials on the standards by which they should decide penalties in situations in which video could call into question a player’s version of events or their interpretation and application of the Rules of Golf — inspired somewhat by what happened to Lexi Thompson at the LPGA’s ANA Inspiration.

The first standard is the “Naked Eye” standard, with the governing bodies effectively saying that rules officials should discard potential penalties that are discovered with video evidence that could not have been reasonably seen by the naked eye. A prime example of this came at the 2016 U.S. Women’s Open when Anna Nordqvist unwittingly brushed a few grains of sand in her backswing in a bunker. It was a violation only realized with the help of zoomed-in, high-definition video. Under the existing rule, Nordqvist was penalized two shots for grounding her club in a bunker and lost in a playoff to Brittany Lang. Under this new Decision, it could have been determined that Nordqvist’s violation wouldn’t have been reasonably seen by the naked eye, giving officials the chance to decline to assess a penalty.

The other standard is the “Reasonable Judgment” standard, which was part of a package of sweeping proposed changes to the Rules of Golf set to be enacted in 2019. Instead of the original language, the concept has been expanded in this Decision, affording officials the right to dismiss a potential penalty against a player if it can be determined a player did “all that can be reasonably expected under the circumstances to make an accurate estimation or measurement … even if later shown to be wrong by other means (such as video technology).”

The original thought behind this was a drop from a hazard, similar to the controversially one involving Tiger Woods at the 2013 Players Championship. Video evidence seemed to suggest Woods’ drop from the left-side hazard on the 14th hole was made from an incorrect place. However, Woods’ playing partner that Sunday, Casey Wittenberg, agreed on the point of the drop at the lateral hazard. Under this guidance, no matter what video evidence could have showed, rules officials would not pursue a penalty against Woods if they believed he took the right steps to estimate the drop.

Now, here’s the odd thing: This Decision wouldn’t necessarily have helped Thompson.

If you’ll recall, Thompson was hit with a pair of two, two-stroke penalties two-thirds through the final round of the LPGA’s first major of the year. She was penalized because a fan, watching a replay of the third round, spotted Thompson improperly replacing her ball on the 17th green. The fan notified the LPGA on Sunday as the final round was unfolding. The LPGA investigated, acknowledged the violation and, applying the Rules of Golf, hit Thompson mid-round with a two-stroke penalty for improperly replacing the ball and another two-stroke penalty for inadvertently signing for an incorrect scorecard.

Thompson clearly missed replacing her mark by about an inch, which may as well be a mile on the putting green. Her case would not have held up to the Naked Eye standard, though it may well have held up to the Reasonable Judgment standard. The new Decision would have placed the power in the hands of a rules official to effectively penalized Thompson zero strokes or four strokes, depending on their ruling.

We also don’t have guidance from the governing bodies about viewer call-ins, which is the root of the ire of fans peeved by what transpired with Thompson, who lost to So Yeon Ryu in a playoff. The USGA and R&A announced the formation of a working group to dig deeper into what should happen with the potential retroactive application of penalties discovered after the fact.

Devil Ball Golf – Golf – Yahoo Sports

Other Related Posts: