Fans Can Now Police Sports

usedto

Lunatic Member
At least in Ladies Golf.

Thanks to a fan who emailed the LPGA after a round in last weeks ANA Tournament. Lexi Thompson was assessed a two stroke penalty after a fan noticed she made an error in ball placement, plus another two stroke penalty for signing in incorrect scorecard. Cost her the tournament.

Sad state of affairs.

 
The rules are the rules. It's sad that some think that adherence to the rules is a "sad state of affairs."
 
Without rules, there can be no sport, there can be no honor in winning. Whether discovered by a fan or an official is irrelevant. What is relevant is playing by the rules. Bobby Jones famously called a penalty on himself in the 1925 U.S. Open and would have won in regulation. He lost in a playoff. Was it worth it? Yes. Booby Jones is known as one of the greatest sportsmen of all time.
 
The biggest thing wrong with this whole deal is the fact the infraction happened during saturdays round and the the wanna be ref/fan didn't call in til Lexi was on her back nine on sunday. The extra two stroke penalty for signing an incorrect score card is BS. Fans should not be allowed to factor in the rules of golf, let alone any other sport. What a joke. The PGA and USGA and R&A have to find a way to fix that.
 
Whether discovered by a fan or an official is irrelevant. What is relevant is playing by the rules.

There have been thousands of instances where umpires have called strikes when they were actually ball, refs missing a call on the football field, and on and on, yet in none of those sports is the outcome ever changed the day after.

I would be willing to bet that if some sort of GPS tracking device were implanted in golf balls, it would more than likely prove that balls that are marked and lifted are NEVER placed exactly where they originally were.
 
There have been thousands of instances where umpires have called strikes when they were actually ball, refs missing a call on the football field, and on and on, yet in none of those sports is the outcome ever changed the day after.

I would be willing to bet that if some sort of GPS tracking device were implanted in golf balls, it would more than likely prove that balls that are marked and lifted are NEVER placed exactly where they originally were.

Maybe you can, but I would not be able to sleep at night knowing I won through cheating. In this world, honor still has a place at the table.
 
Maybe you can, but I would not be able to sleep at night knowing I won through cheating. In this world, honor still has a place at the table.
I wasn't aware that she was accused of cheating. My understanding was it was an error that she wasn't aware of at the time.
 
I cannot believe that some of you cannot separate two things....Adherence to the rules and the behavior of the fan and subsequent actions of the LPGA. If the witness saw an obvious deliberate attempt at cheating, I could buy it...But how can you be guilty of the signing a wrong card when no one knows about the error....Rules like this should be enforced only when LPGA officials discover the issue...otherwise you are setting a terrible precedent for outsiders trying to manipulate things and bust people's chops.

Sometimes it's not the rules, but the breakdown on the moral/ethics of that fan....
 
I cannot believe that some of you cannot separate two things....Adherence to the rules and the behavior of the fan and subsequent actions of the LPGA. If the witness saw an obvious deliberate attempt at cheating, I could buy it...But how can you be guilty of the signing a wrong card when no one knows about the error....Rules like this should be enforced only when LPGA officials discover the issue...otherwise you are setting a terrible precedent for outsiders trying to manipulate things and bust people's chops.

Sometimes it's not the rules, but the breakdown on the moral/ethics of that fan....

Fan helped the LPGA enforce a rule intended to make competition fair for all players. How is that a moral or ethical issue of the fan? Unless of course you approve of violating rules as long as you can get away with it.
 
Fan helped the LPGA enforce a rule intended to make competition fair for all players. How is that a moral or ethical issue of the fan? Unless of course you approve of violating rules as long as you can get away with it.

It's not the fans job to help enforce the rules. You are simply creating more of a problem. It's like vigilantism. You do not want that genie out of the bottle.
 
Fan helped the LPGA enforce a rule intended to make competition fair for all players. How is that a moral or ethical issue of the fan? Unless of course you approve of violating rules as long as you can get away with it.

I guess you're OK with red light cameras, too.
 
Here is a scenario: A fans idol is losing so the fan uses 12 hours of DVR scrutiny to find a misplaced ball. How is that fair when her idol is not subjected to the same scrutiny? No other sport has opened this worm hole, and golf needs to close it. Most golfers are more attentive to the ball's markings rather than use a micrometer to make sure the ball is placed in the precise spot it was lifted from, I doubt 10% are placed precisely where they were lifted from anyway. The Bobby Jones incident was a completely different scenario, but kudo's to him as he was a great golf sportsman, and a gentleman of the game.
Regards,
Jim
 
To the best of my (limited) knowledge, golf is the only sport that allows influence from fans to decide the outcome of an event, much less the day after. If the referees and/or officials aren't able to properly overseeing the event, they need to hire more, or more capable personnel.

One of the reasons viewership is down on golf tournaments.
 
This was as bad as a viewer calling in and saying Craig Stadler was "Building a Stance" when he laid a towel down to protect his pants from tree sap. He had to play a shot from his knees because his ball came to rest under a tree. It cost him $37,000 because he signed an incorrect scorecard. I'm sure he wasn't building a stance but some Gladys Kravitz busy body called into the PGA rules infraction hotline and they had to do something... Didn't they? Both of these situations are ridiculous.
 
Let's keep this civil folks, and on track with the OP.
Thanks,
Jim
 
This was as bad as a viewer calling in and saying Craig Stadler was "Building a Stance" when he laid a towel down to protect his pants from tree sap. He had to play a shot from his knees because his ball came to rest under a tree. It cost him $37,000 because he signed an incorrect scorecard. I'm sure he wasn't building a stance but some Gladys Kravitz busy body called into the PGA rules infraction hotline and they had to do something... Didn't they? Both of these situations are ridiculous.

They don't *have* to do anything. They could always say "we've looked at it, talked to the player, and found that no rules were violated."
 
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