Wie DQ’ed
Michelle Wie finished her third round with a bogey that apparently dropped her out of the lead at the LPGA’s State Farm event today. But, when she came into the scoring tent, she found she had a bigger problem. When she completed her second round, she came into the scoring tent and returned her card. She then went outside the tent and was signing autographs when one of the volunteers came out with her card. The volunteer told her she had not signed the card, so she signed it.
The LPGA only learned of this after she had teed off today so they waited until she finished her round to speak with her.
Rule 6-6b says that the competitor must sign the card before returning it to the Committee. Rule 6-6c says that no alternations can be made after it has been returned. The LPGA Tour and most other events define a scoring area and say that once you have left that area, your card has been officially returned. For the event this week, the scoring area is define as the tent. Once she had left the tent, it was too late to do anything so she had to be disqualified.
Players should always take the time to make sure that all the hole-by-hole scores are correct and that the card has two signatures. Many players think that once they (or their marker) has signed the card, it can’t be changed so they wait until everything else is done. This is wrong. The card can be changed any time until you leave the scoring area (or drop it in a box as some organizations require). You can take the card on the first tee and sign it right then. You can get your marker to sign it also. If something happens that makes the marker not want to sign the card, they can always erase or cross out their signature later.
The problem I have with this is that the LPGA tour and other organizations that have the resources don’t put a paid person who knows all the rules about scoring in the tent instead of relying on volunteers. At the US Open, one or two of the USGA’s staff is in the scoring area and they will do their best to make sure that a player does not leave until the card is thoroughly checked. Sometimes a player is angry and doesn’t wait, but in this case it was just a mental error.
The other problem I have is that Michelle didn’t know that once she left that tent she wasn’t allowed to sign the card. She should have immediately called a rules official rather than just signing the card. She still would have been DQ’ed, but it would have been the right thing to do. Stanford should start a Rules of Golf class.
I once forgot to sign my score card got disqualified from my state’s team championship. My three partners were not happy when they had to count a score that was 10 strokes higher than mine.
I’ve said it before, but I really don’t understand scorecard screw-ups like this. Whenever I’m in an event, the scorers tent (or table, as is most common) is a quasi-religious moment. Study the card. Count the score relative to par, then add them up one by one. Are there 18 scores? Sign here. Did my scorer sign? Ok, turn in card. The only time I think I’ve ever had a scorecard incident was a torney 20 years ago where after a crowd pleasing quad on the 18th (involving a couple of splashes and ensuring my early return to the parking lot), I tossed it on the table and sulked off wanting to be DQd. (Ah, the arrogance of youth.)
Gosh, I just don’t understand the American attitude towards this rule, John. It is very plain and simple, it is your duty to know and follow whatever criteria the committee has in place for the competition as it exists.
One might have thought that the world of golf had learned this lesson and extrapolated the consequences from Senor Roberto at the Mah-sters.
He lost the frigging Masters for gosh sake! One might think that golfers might have heard that story and thought about it once or twice. Hell, if you have to pee really bad, go pee and then go to the scorer’s area. Maybe that was MW’s excuse – “I had to pee! BAD!!!!”
Senor crosses my mind every time I have a scorecard in my hand after the 18th hole is completed.
My Six Point Plan
-Tear off my marker’s notes
-Sign the card I am keeping for my co-competitor – hand to co-competitor
-Check my marker’s notes against my official scorecard HOLE PER HOLE. Damn the addition.
-Correct and explain any mistakes on my card to co-competitor and resolve same
-Sign correct card
-Turn in
-Go have a drink
Works every time
Addendum:
I must add that I am always mildly annoyed when my card holder says at the turn “I had you for 34″ or what ever number. I try not to be too sarcastic as I say “I’ll check the hole by hole later.”
The best players never say anything about the card except “What did you have on that hole?” , “You had a 2 there, right?” or something equally germane.
Bill,
Even if she had to pee, should could say that is what she was doing and would be back to finish taking care of the card in a minute. She was 40 yards away signing autographs when they caught up to her.
The tours do a good job of providing an isolated area for the players to check the card where there should be no distractions as there were in Roberto’s day where the Masters just had a card table by the 18th green.
John
Just another failed attempt at humour on my part, but I think you can see that I really respect this rule. It is black and white if you will, “Just Do It”.
Bill,
While you were being funny, others on Golf Club Atlas were more serious about the same situation.
John, I was only joking about the pee part, not the rule part; that is very clear and professionals who don’t know the rules really do need to. I do not think this is a stupid rule as many on the internet seem to think it is.
Call me a nerd, OK, I’m a nerd – but when the Roberto De Vincenzo episode did not cause a set of circumstances to change this rule the latest Michelle Wie episode should surely not.
This rule that allows the committee to set up the circumstances that constitute “scoring”. As written it must remain unchanged because it affects every tournament from the Open Championship (the most important of them all) to the Dirt Track Muni Invitational in Dust Bowl, ND.
Rule 33-1
THE COMMITTEE MUST establish the conditions under which a competition is to be played.
Can’t be more clear than that.
Hey Brother Bill,
You should relax a little about people offering you a score or whatever at the turn. I’ve run into more than my share of people who offer the card to me at the turn. I usually decline unless something strange has happened. Strangely, 90% of time when I ask these same people if they want to see the card, they also decline, which makes me wonder why they asked me in the first place.
I’m as old school as they come but this rule needs to go. Our sport is unique in many ways…this shouldn’t be one of them.
Let’s show a little compassion and quit taking people out of championships for an oversight…she was signing autographs, not sulking like a teenager…for goodness sake.
Tbig,
So, if she was sulking you would have taken her out of the tournament?
The point is that there shouldn’t be any judgement for something like this. You either sign the card or not. She has been signing cards since she was 10 or younger and ought to be able to remember to do so.
Agreed she should have remembered…my comment isn’t about her. It’s about a bad rule which has no place in the game.
My point went over your head like a Jack Nicklaus 4-wood. Cheers
TBIG, The rule is the way it should be and it shouldn’t be changed. If there are changes needed, they should be in the way the LPGA handles the scoring area. This has happened quite a few times on the LPGA in the past few years, while it doesn’t seem to happen at other events. Certainly for events where there is a large crowd, walking scorers and the rest, the score card tradition might not be needed, but for 99.9999% of events that isn’t true. I’m not going to get in a big debate in the comments here but I think, it is still important for all events.