Pete

Hey guys. I'm back on TST for the first time in months. I haven't watched much golf at all either, but when I saw this in the news, I knew I had to see what you guys were saying. It seems you're mostly as flabbergasted as I am. I am gobsmacked not only by the 4 minutes but by Holmes' total lack of awareness that this is an unacceptable amount of time to take over a shot. And then Justin Thomas defending him! You can't just wait for the wind to stop blowing. Wind is part of golf. Yeah it's blustery and unpredictable sometimes. Deal with it the same way everyone else has to. Holmes should apologise to Noren and the fans. The PGA should definitely do something publicly to highlight this unacceptable behavior. P.S. Yeah, I used both 'flabbergasted' and 'gobsmacked' in this post. I even thought about using 'dumbfounded'!

Bought my current irons 5-PW Added a 4I and then a 3I. I feel I'm more accurate with Irons that hybrids. Especially off the tee.

Home course (UK). Teed off at 7.50pm and played 18 holes by myself. Finished at 9.50pm so 2 hours for full round. I love golfing in the late evenings in June. It's like a form of meditation. I shot 76 (5 over) after being 3 over after three holes due to very bad second shots on two early par fives. Front nine was all about getting up and down. I finished the back nine with seven straight GIRs which was very pleasing. My long game is probably better than it's ever been.

Age 38 Ping G30 LS Tec Driver 9.5 deg TM R9 tp 3W 17 deg Mizuno MP-58 3 iron Mizuno MP-53 4-PW Mizuno TP-15 GW 50 deg TM SW 56 deg Cleveland LW 60 deg Ping TR Karsten Anser 5

At the risk of stirring this up even more, I'd like to appeal to everyone's common sense. I've just watched it again and again, and I am convinced: LEXI THOMPSON WAS CLEARLY CHEATING AND IS TRYING TO PRETEND SHE WASN'T! I am very glad she got penalised the next day.

Sure. Just look at the reputation of the world governing body FIFA. Doesn't exactly scream integrity does it? Every world cup I've watched (1986 onwards) has had controversy at some stage. Faking injury to waste time. Hand of god. Dodgy penalties. Teams playing out a mutually beneficial result that qualifies both to the next stage at the expense of other teams and the integrity of all 22 players. It's so frequent it is just considered part of the game. It's the biggest sport in the world due to simplicity and history. Not because of the spirit or sportsmanship with which it is played or organised.

Major reason for why I stopped watching football (soccer). The ref doesn't see the dive and gives a penalty, the team scores the penalty and wins 1-0, and everyone complains about the ref and says the diver was 'clever'. Would we want golf to be like that? Umm, no thanks...

I think @iacas is simply trying to help you understand the rules and why they are applied the way they are. He does not blindly defend the USGA. Many times he has criticised them when it's due. You may not want me on your side this time @iacas but I'm totally with you on this one.

Agreed. 4 strokes is a big risk to take when you could just play by the rules and not move your ball to a different location. It seems so harsh but the violation was of a fundamental rule and was blatant. It's not hard to put the ball back in the same spot. To be honest, LT looks all the more stupid for saying it was an accident. Watching it back, there's no point where she pauses to clean the ball or anything. She simply moved it to a different location. This fire was started by Lexi Thomson.

I'd still rather it was this way than allowing cheating as long as no refs spot you doing it. It seems petty because so many other sports think diving/flopping/faking injury is part of the sport. It's one of the reasons I love golf so much. Edit: Not the petty calling in by fans, but the fact that cheating is called cheating and is commonly understood as being NOT part of the sport.

I agree. The video evidence very much looks like she moved it intentionally. It was done in one motion much like Chella Choi so it's not like she left the marker there for a while and forgot she had marked it to the side. My guess she saw a spike mark or similar and was trying to avoid it. Hopefully the 2019 rules will mean this won't happen from then on. But for now, the way it happened sucks, but I cannot defend that as being an accident.

Excellent point. Hopefully they will see it this way after they've received all the responses and rescind the proposal

Hypothetically, if the word spread super fast and always leaving the flagstick became the 99% case, how many would still not want the change because it simply makes putting easier? Does is matter that putting becomes easier for everyone? P.S. I'm not making a point, I'm just asking the question.

It is yes. But I doubt it will make it into the final rules in 2019 due to the issues discussed in the rules proposal threads.

Yeah. And my fixed flag idea wouldn't work because you'd have to putt through the shadow of the flag if you're in the wrong place. That wouldn't be very fair. Back to the drawing board...