GOLF SCORING: IS THE SYSTEM FAIR?
I
s anyone else as troubled as I am by some of golf’s incredibly arcane rules? Having played the game all my adult life, I’m familiar with the rules and even agree with most of them. But there are others that are frustrating, if not infuriating. Now, bear in mind that I’m talking about the professional or top-level amateur game here. For what should be obvious reasons, normal amateur events are a different animal altogether. Chief among the abovementioned frustrations, I think, is the scoring scenario. As we all know, if a player signs an incorrect score card he or she is disqualified from the competition. It makes no difference if half
the western world knows what a player’s score is. It makes no difference if a national television audience has just watched in rapt attention as Tiger drilled a thirty-footer for a three. If he inadvertently signs for a four, that’s what he gets. With today’s technology, there is no longer any need to rely on backward conventions to score a golf tournament. I know all the arguments. The players police themselves. It’s part of the game and it’s an integral ingredient of the integrity of the game. So on and so forth. How can those arguments hold any water when we’ve allowed technological advances in golf equipment to trample the game’s foundations and fundamentally change the
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