Armchair Viewers

On the Sunday during the Women’s First Major of the year, the ANA Inspiration, which was held from March 30-April 2nd 2017.  Lexi Thompson, the 22-year-old was set to win the second major of her career: with six holes left to play she led by three strokes.

During the final round on the Sunday,  a TV viewer emailed in a video clip from Saturday’s play showing Lexi Thompson misplacing her marked ball on the putting green.

The LPGA officials decided to hand Lexi Thompson an extremely controversial four stroke penalty onto her third round score and suddenly her lead by three strokes turned in the blink of an eye to second place.  The four strokes were in fact made up of two penalties, the first being a 2 stroke penalty for incorrectly placing a marked ball on the 17th green and the second two stroke penalty was for signing an incorrect scorecard.

At the time of the notification of the penalty,  Lexi Thompson was -16 with six holes left and was taken back to -12.  She went on to make three more birdies, forcing a playoff with So Yeon Ryu, they has both carded 274 (-14).
Unfortunately, despite Thompson’s efforts she lost in the sudden death playoff to a birdie putt on the first hole by So Yeon Ryu, this was So Yeon Ryu second major title.  -14 took the title and the purse.

On April 25th 2017, the R&A and USGA, then went on to issue rule 34-3/10 which came into effect immediately, it was nicknamed the Lexi Thompson rule.  Rule 34-3/10 limits the use of video evidence if the infraction "can't be seen with the naked eye", or the player had done "all that can be reasonably expected to make an accurate estimation or measurement" in order to correctly play or spot their ball, even if video evidence suggests otherwise.  

For a sport that struggles to grow, incidents like this make golf seem incredibly uptight.

Referees and rules officials are hired by sports organizations for a reason: to monitor the games and matches played. Yes, there are times when officials get it wrong and it’s infuriating for everyone.
So why the hell does golf allow for TV spectators to affect the outcome of the tournament?

No one has a clue, and golf organizations have never provided a credible reason. Sadly, Thompson’s case is not the first time this has happened in golf and it will not be the last. 

At the Masters in 2013, Tiger Woods was assessed a two-stroke penalty for hitting from the wrong spot when a viewer texted an official, it later emerged that the viewer was in fact revealed to be a former PGA Tournament Director. 
Woods, at the time was three strokes off the lead, he was penalized the next day.

Earlier in 2013, Stacy Lewis was given a two-stroke penalty when a phonecall came into the LPGA from an armchair viewer to say they had spotted her caddie testing the surface of a bunker in the third round.

Golf is set up for these incidents more than other sports. Like Test cricket, it is one of the few sports where a game lasts a few days. In an NBA or soccer game, by the time a viewer had emailed in the contest would be over. But even if time wasn’t an issue it wouldn’t happen in others sports because it’s ridiculous.

Golf is a game built on integrity and the ability to live with your own conscience, players often call penalties on themselves and serve as their own referee.  Nobody will ever know whether Thompson knew she placed the ball incorrectly and thought she could get away with it. Or more likely, Thompson did not realize that she had placed the ball just centimeters closer to the hole, providing her no advantage whatsoever.

Such slips up happen and are actually fairly common. In day to day life we can take personal responsibility for our mistakes but Thompson, Woods and Lewis and every other golfer who have incurred penalties due to TV viewers are left to rant at people who they will never meet.

Whatever the case, if the rule infraction was not seen by the rules official walking with the group at the time, nor by any of the players in the group, then a penalty should absolutely not be assessed the following day and not because of an armchair viewer sending in a video clip or email.

Until armchair viewers are certified rules officials and have gone through the rigorous certification process then viewers should not be able to change the outcome of any golf tournament and more importantly golf should not let them. Golf should remain in the hands of officials and players on the course.