Another Penalty for Lexi Thompson

[Vinsk]

https://www.golfchannel.com/article/golf-central-blog/lexi-charges-64-despite-another-penalty/

Seems Lexi might benefit herself to learn the rules better.....

[iacas]

Such an easy one to get right, too.

[billchao]

Reading local rules is hard, just ask Dustin Johnson

[Vinsk]

She’s lucky too. Imagine If she wasn’t notified so quickly and after signing her card an official says, ‘uh...Lexi..’

[Asheville]

Players (and referees) sometimes don't always think clearly when things become awkward. A savvy caddie might have prevented that breach. (If I were a player's agent I would encourage him or her to send their caddie to a PGA/USGA Rules Workshop.)

[Vinsk]

I realize it’s ultimately the player’s responsibility. And I know some players if not most have only a reasonable understanding of the rules as far as the more common conditions that arise. But you’d think when a tournament posts a local rule(s) the player and caddie would pay particular attention to it. And when the article states Lexi ‘just shook her head and laughed at her gaffe’ I wonder if that was her true sentiment? Being how she handled the ANA incident I’m speculating it was more of a ‘ boy they really wanna get me huh?’ Total speculation of course but we all saw how she played the victim last time.

[PraiseKek]

I'm not sure this local rule is legal, but they may have got an unfortunate clearance from a USGA that thinks dropping from 1/8th" and using a meter stick to measure relief distances is a good idea. There are many situations where 'other' fairways are the best fairway to play for, usually weather dependent. It should be any closely mown area to account for dual use and split fairways as well. 

 

10 hours ago, iacas said:

Such an easy one to get right, too.

Absolutely disagree. I've never heard of such a local rule before. Neither in USGA, AJGA, or PGATour competition. A non-standard prefered lies rule is supposed to get clearance from the USGA or R and A. I would be very interested in reading this rulesheet and talking to the person who came up with such a rule.

If you don't want people playing into closely mown area off the intended hole design for safety reasons, then use internal OB. Don't make a joke of the rules.

That said, I have very little sympathy for Lexi Thompson. She got caught cheating and only got a four stroke penalty. She deserved a DQ and suspension.

[David in FL]

Silly breach

[Rulesman]

33 minutes ago, PraiseKek said:

I'm not sure this local rule is legal, but they may have got an unfortunate clearance from a USGA that thinks dropping from 1/8th" and using a meter stick to measure relief distances is a good idea. There are many situations where 'other' fairways are the best fairway to play for, usually weather dependent. It should be any closely mown area to account for dual use and split fairways as well. 
 

This is the response from the RBs

"A ball lying on a closely-mown area through the green (or specify a more restricted area,

It is our position that it is permissible to limit the operation of the Local Rule for preferred lies to certain areas, e.g. specific fairways or the fairway of the hole being played.

[Vinsk]

38 minutes ago, PraiseKek said:

Absolutely disagree. I've never heard of such a local rule before

That’s irrelevant. The rule was posted and provided for the players prior to the tournament. This is due to perhaps a player ‘never hearing of such a rule.’

[PraiseKek]

9 minutes ago, Vinsk said:

That’s irrelevant. The rule was posted and provided for the players prior to the tournament. This is due to perhaps a player ‘never hearing of such a rule.’

No doubt, but that doesn't make the rule fair, just equitable. It is her fault, I wasn't defending her, rather I was taking a shot at the USGA, and having a swipe at IACAS for thinking this local rule is any way normal. 

It is clear whoever wrote the local rule does not have a grasp of how golf is played. It is the idea of someone who thinks they know how golf is play. These are the most annoying people in the world, and the USGA has multiple people that fit this description for potential culprits. I can't speak for the LPGA, but it wouldn't surprise me if their diversity initiatives brought inexperience that lead to this disaster. The LPGA is lucky to exist, South Korea's love for women's golf saved it, but I still couldn't tell you how to actually watch the LPGA. It's not marketed well.

Edited August 19, 2018 by PraiseKek

[Vinsk]

39 minutes ago, PraiseKek said:

and having a swipe at IACAS for thinking this local rule is any way normal. 

When did @iacas state it was ‘normal’? He stated it was ‘easy to get right.’ Which it is. It wasn’t obscure like DJ standing in a shallow sandy area with spectators and empty beer cans on the ground around him and not realizing it was a hazard. She was clearly in another fairway and obviously didn’t read the local rule. 

[criley4way]

2 hours ago, Asheville said:

Players (and referees) sometimes don't always think clearly when things become awkward. A savvy caddie might have prevented that breach. (If I were a player's agent I would encourage him or her to send their caddie to a PGA/USGA Rules Workshop.)

If I were on her management team I would pay the Caddie to attend 2 or 10 workshops and pay for 25% of the money won due to adherence to the rules. 

[PraiseKek]

1 hour ago, Vinsk said:

When did @iacas state it was ‘normal’? He stated it was ‘easy to get right.’ Which it is. It wasn’t obscure like DJ standing in a shallow sandy area with spectators and empty beer cans on the ground around him and not realizing it was a hazard. She was clearly in another fairway and obviously didn’t read the local rule. 

By the tone it is inferred that it is normal to have absurd local rules and nobody who knows the rules and competes regularly could make such a mistake. I'm not saying she isn't responsible. I think there should be more excitement regarding the absurdity of such a local rule. It is a symptom of a waning sport.

The 2019 rule changes are in part related to her previous four stroke penalty. A simplified ruleset to sooth Millennials with five second attention spans is not going to convince most people to play. Something like 75% of golfers just play casually. In the last 10 years the share of +1 handicaps has increased 8 fold. That's not because the game is getting easier, or vanity handicaps are becoming more prevalent, that's because people are quitting.

Edit: Share of +1 or better handicaps, not the total number.
 

Edited August 19, 2018 by PraiseKek

[MacDutch]

30 minutes ago, PraiseKek said:

By the tone it is inferred that it is normal to have absurd local rules and nobody who knows the rules and competes regularly could make such a mistake. I'm not saying she isn't responsible. I think there should be more excitement regarding the absurdity of such a local rule. It is a symptom of a waning sport.

The 2019 rule changes are in part related to her previous four stroke penalty. A simplified ruleset to sooth Millennials with five second attention spans is not going to convince most people to play. Something like 75% of golfers just play casually. In the last 10 years the share of +1 handicaps has increased 8 fold. That's not because the game is getting easier, or vanity handicaps are becoming more prevalent, that's because people are quitting.

Edit: Share of +1 or better handicaps, not the total number.
 

Nothing wrong with the local rule you think is absurd. Easy to get, and it gives the golfers playing the right fairway a benifit to the ones with the wild miss to the wrong fairway.

Rest of your post also has a lot of tone in it 🙄. Like big time frustration. Missed the cut on a ruling?

[PraiseKek]

39 minutes ago, MacDutch said:

Nothing wrong with the local rule you think is absurd. Easy to get, and it gives the golfers playing the right fairway a benifit to the ones with the wild miss to the wrong fairway.

Rest of your post also has a lot of tone in it 🙄. Like big time frustration. Missed the cut on a ruling?

General frustration with the USGA. My favorite ruling was them disqualifying someone I know after they were misdirected from the scoring area for no more than 1 minute of being lost. My favorite idiotic USGA rule change was banning tall people (7ft+) from playing competitive golf altogether with a maximum driver length instead of just limiting the flight of the ball. 

I do get the argument in favor. I just believe it isn't fair, and it's a bit arrogant to assume a course designer didn't conceive of two way shots, long hitters, or weather conditions. I looked up the hole (pretty sure the tournament 10th hole is #2 normally), and it's definitely a spot where she was probably aiming for the other fairway if it was downwind, but I found no video of her tee shot. If the intent of the design is not to play that shot, then make it OB, don't penalize good golf with arbitrary rules that cause the casual viewer to think golf is stupid.

 

Edited August 19, 2018 by PraiseKek

[iacas]

@PraiseKek, almost everything you’ve typed in this topic has been wrong.

It is a perfectly valid Local Rule that is used in a ton of tournaments.

[PraiseKek]

1 minute ago, iacas said:

@PraiseKek, almost everything you’ve typed in this topic has been wrong.

It is a perfectly valid Local Rule that is used in a ton of tournaments.

Sure, I agree it's perfectly valid. It's a local rule, and subject to the whim of the USGA's approval. It doesn't have to be up for discussion really for that reason, but it's somehow this attitude of a policy without any logic has crept into the current golf culture. I doubt you will ever get a sensible defense from the USGA as to why this makes sense.

I really don't remember this before 2004 rule changes when I competed. It must be a recent thing, like many regressions in golf and the dumbing down in society as a whole. It's not that big a deal, but the issue I have here is the rule itself, not a player screwing it up. The tone of the thread is that she doesn't know the rules, well the answer is that preferred lies are not part of the rules. It's an attention to detail thing (reading the rulesheet) and a mindset. Who knows, the ability to distract herself from things on the course that allow her to score well, might have these sort of incidents as a side effect (or she's just loose with rules in general to get an edge). I agree with paying her caddie to improve his performance. This is on the caddie too.

Finally, defending something because it is used widely is not really a good support argument without a reason for it. The drinking age in the US is widely 21, but conscription is 18. Seems unfair at first glance. There might be good arguments in favor, but the status quo alone is not one of them.