Jeffery
High Powered Mutant
The rules are the rules. It's sad that some think that adherence to the rules is a "sad state of affairs."
Refs blow calls in football, even with instant replay. I cringe to think what it would be like if all the fans who thought their team was slighted were able to email in their verdict and get rulings overturned. The NFL has even acknowledged blown calls after the games were finished, but didn't go back and change to outcome.
More to the point of the OP:
The gal who ended up winning the tournament had been several stokes back and received very little TV coverage up until the point of the infraction by the other girl. The TV viewers never knew if she had committed any fouls because her play had not warranted the TV spotlight up until then - she might have misplaced the ball on every putt to get within 6 strokes of the leader, we don't know. So it appears that this new "policing rules via TV audience" will only apply to the front runners, none of the back markers get much TV coverage.
And that brings up the crux of the matter: How can rulings be fair if they are not applied equally to every player in the field? Sure, rules of golf apply equally to every player, but not the extra scrutiny of thousands of extra PGA officials on each hole. Oh wait... those aren't PGA officials, they are fans viewing from home.
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.
But the extra added fan enforcement is not applied to all players - only those who have a score good enough to warrant TV coverage.
Last edited: