Golf Rules

Players are penalized for proceeding incorrectly. But what if the Committee itself makes a wrong ruling?

The answer might surprise some of you: The Rules of Golf, as approved by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews and the United States Golf Association, do not provide penalties for the Committee in charge of the competition.

But I'm getting ahead of the story. Let me begin with the fax sent by a player (who, not wishing to unduly raise a fuss, took pains not to name names) concerning a big tournament that I later found out to have been a senior tournament among five countries, hosted by the Philippines. Here's the fax:

[From Angel Lazaro, Jr., Fax 924-9887] Please base your answer on the assumption that the following statements are accurate and true.

1) The annual 2-day tournament is well-run, with each of the five member countries taking turns to host the event. Each country has a national federation, with fully organized chapters.

2) This year, as usual, the chapters sent their players' handicaps to their federation, which in turn submitted the handicaps to the host country.

3) These handicaps, including those above 27, were on the printed program and on the players' score cards for both rounds.

4) Copies of this official program were given to the players before the tournament.

5) After the first round, hole-by-hole scores of all the players were posted on the big board, together with their gross 18-hole totals, their handicaps, and their net scores.

6) The same procedure was followed in posting the second day's scores.

7) However, after the second day's results were posted on the big board, the host country ordered that all handicaps higher than 27 be erased and lowered to 27.

8) It was claimed that no handicap should exceed 27. If so, why was that rule not followed in the first game?

9) The net scores on the second day, based on the lowered handicaps, affected the standings of some players. Hence, my questions:

Q. May a Committee change a player's handicap after the game?

A. Normally, this is not done. But the Committee must have felt it had a justifiable reason to do so. In any case, the Committee has awesome powers under the rules and there's nothing much a player can do about it, except this: "If the dispute or doubtful point has not been submitted to the Rules of Golf Committee [of the R&A], the player or players have the right to refer an agreed statement through the Secretary of the Club to the Rules of Golf Committee [of the R&A] for an opinion as to the correctness of the decision taken (Rule 34-3)."

Q. If there were infractions, what should have been the penalties?

A. The Rules of Golf provide penalties for players only -- there are none for the Committee. (A golfer's only recourse is to avoid tournaments run by incompetent Committees.)

Would it be wise to take all handicaps higher than 27 and lower them to 27? No. A handicap is based on a player's past scores. The USGA Handicap Manual has a formula for determining a fair handicap. If a player's gross scores show that he is indeed entitled to a 34 handicap, for example, he should get 34. (On the other hand, you've got to watch out for sandbaggers -- the cheaters who deliberately play badly during unimportant games in order to bring up their handicaps for tournaments that count. Furthermore, golfing bodies in other Asian countries may have followed a system for computing handicaps other than the formula outlined in the USGA Handicap Manual.) Be that as it may, it would be better for a Committee to verify players' handicaps -- and make the necessary changes -- before the start of the tournament.

What if the Committee discovers that players had given inflated handicaps after score cards have been submitted? In stroke play, the Committee is empowered to disqualify such players under Rules 6-2b: "...if the recorded handicap is higher than that to which he is entitled and this affects the number of strokes received, he shall be disqualified from the handicap competition..." If he knew he was not entitled to the higher handicap before the competition closed, the competitor may be DQ'd even after the competition has closed, under Rule 34-1b(ii).

My friend Merv Simpson poses an easy riddle: Where do you find 150 white guys chasing one black guy? That's a no-brainer. Why, on the PGA Tour, of course, where the Tiger is so far out in front -- in prize money and multimillion-dollar endorsement contracts!

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