Scoring 101: Don`t record a 35 on #18

In qualifying for the Colorado State HS Championships, one kid had a chance to shoot 34 for the back 9 with a par 4 on 18.  Instead, he took 5 strokes but his card said 35 as his score on 18 (instead of 5 which would have given him 35 for the back 9).  He did not make it to the State Finals http://www.cogolf.org/index.php?mod=NewsMedia_Read&ArticleID;=878

Ouch... sucks for that kid.

see, this is one of the things about competition golf that i dont like.  i know there will be purists here that will say that it was the kids fault (as it was, im not debating that), but the kid took a certain number of strokes, and in my mind thats what he shot.  its not the number written on the card, its the strokes he took.  the kid that went instead of him didnt play better, and thats not right in my book.

I could not agree with you more.  This is so dumb.  The person collecting the cards couldn't just see the 35 in the 18th hole column, then see the blank in the "in" column and put 2 + 2 together to realize something wasn't right?

right.  for me its not about whats written on the card, its how many strokes did you actually take?

I have to say that i agree with both. But as a golfer, you check your score before you sign. If you don't notice a 35 in the small box you get for the 18th hole, then that is a problem.

That sucks.  Hope the kid is on an alternate list in case someone bails or can't make it?

Unfortunately, the rules trump what you would prefer. Marking your card is not that hard.

So if the committee person corrects the card, then later learns that the kid had actually taken a 6 on 18 but mistakenly wrote down a 35, how is that fair to the kid would lose because the committee person made assumptions?  Keep in mind that often the cards aren't looked at at the time of collection.  They're all taken up and then posted a while later.

The committee did their job correctly.

Now, what would make sense is for the committee to call back both the player and the marker and discuss it with them to see if the obvious mistake was in fact, what happened.  However, at something like a state qualifier, I can understand why it wouldn't be practical to do so.

The committee person cannot correct the card on his own because he has no idea what actually happened.  I just imagine that he would look at the card and have a pretty darn good idea of what didn't happen.  That (the bold) is exactly what I would have hoped for.  I absolutely agree that the committee person can't make assumptions, but it would have been nice if they (as they say in the NFL regarding the referees and instant replay) "got together and discussed it, so ultimately they could get the call right."  If, as you say, those cards are taken up and posted at another time, then there was really nothing that could be done.  Although, almost as much as him, I also wouldn't want to be the kid that got in because of the other kids error.

I do get and appreciate the rules, just think some of them are a little bit overboard and silly.

You certainly have to be careful about these things and hopefully the kid did learn a lesson

I doubt he was the one who actually marked it wrong.

I am guessing, but he probably exchanged cards with another competitor meaning that it was likely one of his playing competitors that wrote down the 35 for #18 and the kid who really scored 35 for the back 9 failed to notice that there were only 8 correct scores before the back 9 total in the box for #18.  I don`t know what he shot the front 9, but the card probably looked something like:

4 5 3 4 5 4 5 4 4  38  4 4 3 4 3 4 4 4 35   73

It is definitely the players responsibility to verify the correct scores, but he likely just saw that the "total" was correct and just signed it (or maybe he even verified the individual scores but overlooked 18).

Quote:

Originally Posted by MEfree

I doubt he was the one who actually marked it wrong.

He signs it and when he signs it he says it's correct.

I know the person that this happened to (I live in the same city even) He had a separate scorer, someone who walks along with the golfers to score them. The scorer made the error, and they still slam the kid for that. I thought it was totally unfair when I read it in the newspaper, but apparently the tournament organizers thought otherwise. It reminded me to never, ever, write (or let someone else write) the total score in a tournament. The people at the scoring table will do that for you most of the time, so my thinking is why even create the opportunity for the confusion? Also, he unfortunately can't play in the state tournament even if someone can't make it, because he didn't qualify. In Colorado, for a kid to make it to the State competition, he needs to score under the cut line (determined by how the majority of players score), AND score within 10 strokes of the next worst score on their team. Unfortunately, Todd (the player) does not meet those requirements. I feel bad for him, because last year he had to watch the competition at Pelican Lakes because he was the #5 player, even though his scoring average was lower than someone else who played in state instead of him, meaning this is the second year to sit out in a row for him.

On the one hand I am sympathetic towards the kid.  On the other hand, this was not some 12 and under event.  It is not at all unreasonable to expect a HS student who is good enough to qualify for the state championship to know the rules.  So while I say, "tough break" I wouldn't expect anyone to do anything to "correct" it once the signed card is submitted.  And it is the players responsibility to check the card before signing it.  So blaming it on the marker is a non-starter to me.

The rule is archaic and way over the top. In what other sport are the participants charged with being the official recorders?

That may be one of the aspects that make golf unique, but that doesn't mean it's a good thing.

Especially for youths. If we're talking legal minors here, their signatures are basically worthless on anything in society. It should be the same for a golf scorecard.

Yeah, the kid learned a valuable lesson, but his penalty was way out of proportion with his infraction.

I think I fall somewhere in the middle of the two of you...When I played Jr golf, we swapped cards with another competitor (or did a multi way trade).  Except in a few of the bigger tournaments, there were NOT official scorers with the groups, so signatures were an important part of the process.  There are bigger things in life than golf, so I see signing a golf scorecard as a good way for a "minor" to start preparing for some adult responsibilities.

While blaming the scoring may seem like a non-starter for some, how many other kids in this qualifier had to discover that their scorer had made a mistake.  Possibly a few, but likely not that many.  While a diligent check of the card would have uncovered the mistake, the total score likely looked correct to the kid (as did the 17 individual holes that were scored).  In this respect, this kid had the extra burden of uncovering a partial hidden error that the other competitors did not have to track down.  I am sure that scorer feels bad (unless they had a rooting interested elsewhere).

I`d be curious to know if the kid made an attempt to checked his individual hole scores or not.  I always did this when I played in these types of events BUT I could also see how someone could look over their card and miss the mistake at the end.  OTOH, I have seen some competitors only go over individual hole scores when there appeared to be a mistake with the total score.

im not arguing the rule, or that it was applied incorrectly.  under the rules everything was handled as it should have been.  im saying that this is one of the stupid things about golf, that the final word is not what you did on the course but what was written down on a small piece of paper.