By Blake Dowson
One the most awful rules in all of sports showed its nasty teeth this past weekend on the LPGA Tour as Lexi Thompson was leading on the back-nine, poised to win a major championship.
During the third round of the ANA Inspiration, Thompson marked her ball with a coin on the 17th green, picked it up to clean it, then placed it back by the marker. The rules violation occurred when she placed the ball back on the putting surface, and it was more than an inch away from where it originally lay. Thompson didn’t do this with any intent, as she pleaded afterward. She simply just put her ball back down on the green.
Here is where this gets messy, oh so awful, and worthy of an immediate rules change. Nobody on the course saw Thompson do it. Not her caddy, any officials, or anybody in the crowd.A fan watching on TV emailed the LPGA to notify it of the rules violation, and the LPGA listened, as the rule states. Thompson was issued a 4-stroke penalty, which erased her 3-stroke lead in the final round. Two strokes for misplacing her ball, and 2 for signing an incorrect scorecard.
Thompson rallied to birdie the final three holes and force a playoff, which she lost to So Yeon Ryu. Ryu took home $405,000 for the win — Thompson $250,000 for taking second.
The second-place finish and the subsequent $155,000 Thompson missed out on have to be a black eye for the LPGA.
This rule that robbed Thompson of her second major win is so bizarre and so mind-numbingly wrong that I thought it was fake when I heard Thompson had been dinged for it.
Thompson thought the rules official was joking with her when the news of the 4-stroke penalty was given to her.
Letting anyone channel surfing between House Hunters, the LPGA, and a Big Bang Theory marathon on TBS be an official for a tournament in which hundreds of thousands of dollars are on the line is laughable.
It would be the same as letting someone call MLB to let them know that Anthony Rizzo didn’t actually beat out that close play at first — he was actually out. And then MLB actually listening to them and reversing the call.
It would be the same as allowing someone in their fifth-straight hour in their La-Z-Boy call up the NBA and say Russell Westbrook stepped out of bounds before hitting a game-winning shot, so the shot didn’t really count. If the NBA had the same rules as the LPGA, Westbrook’s shot goes off the board, Thunder lose.
Another reason this rule is so dim-witted is the fact that not all golfers get the same amount of TV time, therefore only players near the top of the leaderboard would be subject to TV officiating.
Golf has not changed its game at the same pace as other major sports. MLB, NBA, and NFL have all changed and adapted to a new audience during the digital age. For the most part, golf hasn’t had to. The sport rarely deals with performance enhancing drug issues, and concussions are more of a rarity than a hole in one.
But this TV officiating rule must change, and it must change now. It cannot wait until after the formal LPGA season is over, like how the Big Four sports do it.
Thompson lost $155,000 from the tournament alone because of it. It’s impossible to tell how much money she potentially lost in endorsements because she didn’t end up hoisting the trophy. She also lost the chance to call herself a two-time major winner.
At this point, the ANA Invitational is in the rearview mirror for Thompson. There is nothing she can do about it, and even if the rule is eliminated, she won’t be awarded the victory.
To save future golfers from the same situation, though, it must be abolished.
