Dumber than carrots, the R&A and US Golf Association need to inject common sense into the rules and move into the 21st century
The Byzantine Empire has nothing on the Rules of Golf. If that hasn't been clear over the past few weeks, which have seen Camilo Villegas thrown out of a US PGA Tour event for flicking a divot away as his ball rolled towards it and Elliott Saltman banished to golfing Elba (incorrectly replacing ball on green by a less than half-an-inch equals a three-month ban and permanent character stain), then it surely is now after Padraig Harrington's disqualification from the Abu Dhabi Championship.
The Irishman will spend the next three days on the practice range here after yet another rules imbroglio likely to have the layman (and probably the weekend player) scratching his head. Dumber than carrots, the great American writer Dan Jenkins once described the rules. He was too kind.
But more of that later. First a public service announcement: contrary to what some people might think, Harrington was not disqualified because he inadvertently moved his ball a fraction on the 7th green (a breach of rule 20-3a which should have incurred a two-shot penalty) during the first round in Abu Dhabi. He was disqualified because he signed his scorecard without adding the two-shot penalty (the one he didn't know he had incurred) to his score of 65 (a breach of Rule 6-6d).
Got that? If so, the European Tour is always on the look-out for some fresh blood in its rules department. If not, don't worry because this is one of the marvellous occasions when all that is required to make sense of a seemingly complicated subject is common sense. It is common sense, is it not, that if someone does not know he has broken a rule and behaves accordingly, then that person should not be subjected to the penalty far harsher than that which would have been imposed on the original breach of the rules.
It is common sense, is it not, that in this era of high-definition television and super slow-motion, of social media and couch-bound vigilantes who want to, and can, make their voices heard, that rules which might have made sense 30 years ago might not make sense now.
Harrington moved his ball on the green. He did not mean to do it, he didn't know he had done it. The rules say a two-shot penalty. He should have received a two-shot penalty. Instead, he has been thrown out of the tournament.
Let's not get carried away. "Millionaire golfer denied the chance win another half-a-million" is not a headline that will unduly disturb the good people at Amnesty International. However, it should be enough to rouse from its slumber the R&A, the game's so-called governing body and, along with the US Golf Association, the organisation charged with drawing up the Rules of Golf.
Apparently, the R&A believes that the scorecard, once it is signed, it a sacred document, one that cannot be revisited. How quaint. How ridiculous. Dumber than carrots? You bet.
Here's what should have happened to Harrington ? and here's what will happen once common sense prevails. He should have been assessed a two-shot penalty, he should have been allowed to "re-sign" his scorecard, this time for a 67, and he should have been allowed to go out and spend his weekend trying to win the Abu Dhabi Championship.
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