Source: Vietnam News

The story I received was that a veteran golf reporter, Michael Bamberger, was the one who dropped the dime on Michelle Wie’s now famous illegal drop.

What makes the story unbelievable was that Bamberger waited until Wie’s group cleared the green, then walked off the yardage himself and concluded that Michelle Wie had violated the rules by dropping closer to the hole. Thus, he had crossed the line from reporter to rules official and to make matters worse, slept on the problem before deciding to report the infraction.

In a game devoid of umpires, referees, and line judges, is it OK for patrons, television viewers, and even journalists to get involved and play rules official?

During the entire episode, phrases such as ''the integrity of the game" and ''protecting the field" echoed about.

What was equally worrisome was that her fellow-competitor, Grace Park, didn’t bother to "protect the field" by walking over to check the drop, which would’ve been the professional thing to do. If she had done that, the entire mess would’ve been avoided. But Park stayed on the green, some 30 yards away, and simply acknowledged that it was OK with her that Wie was taking an unplayable.

Bamberger said he delayed because he was trying to be sure, but that is a lame excuse because a Rules official could’ve settled the matter within minutes of being notified and nobody would’ve been disqualified, only penalised.

The biggest problem in golf, both professional and amateur, is that Rules are seldom enforced correctly, if at all. Its very disheartening to find some people have a double standard when it comes to enforcement of the Rules of Golf.

The problem comes when a recreational player, who hardly ever calls a penalty on himself enters a tournament and continues his wayward ways, or worse, fails to notice his competitor breaking the rules.

Calling a penalty on someone is not a pleasant thing to do and can result in hard feelings between the players, but it needs to be done nonetheless, otherwise you’re not "protecting the field."

Imagine two players, one plays the best game of his life and finishes with a 66, while another player shoots 65 but has broken the rules a few times and nobody reported it.

The guy who played the game of his life loses to someone who didn’t deserve to win, and that’s isn’t fair. Anyone can shoot a great score if they "improve their lie", take illegal drops, forget a few missed putts, etc., but that doesn’t make it right.

It is the duty of every player to learn the Rules and to protect the field.

In a related note of the on-going saga regarding Amateur Status…

The 2006 USGA Rules of Golf has eliminated the prize value limits for a Hole-in-One made during a round of golf. This means a player can accept a Mercedes Benz, a Million Dollars, or a small country without losing their Amateur Status for a year.

Currently, all of the above are all violations of the same Rule (3-2).

However, as might be expected, the R&A doesn’t agree with the change and thus, there is a temporary schism between the two governing bodies.

However, most people on both sides of the Atlantic agree that the R&A will be forced to accept the Rule change when the Clubs under their jurisdiction begin to lose money as more tournaments are organised in the US.

Callaway, Ping and Taylor Made all managed to force the governing bodies to bend slightly to market forces, and most experts are betting the same will happen in this case.

From my point of view, prize values for a Hole-in-One should be eliminated because luck is more of an issue than skill. In addition, thousands of people lose their Amateur Status every year due to this rule because nobody is going to say "no" to a shiny, new automobile.

It will be interesting to see how this one plays out.