Cam Smith was expected to be one of the players to beat on Sunday at the St. Jude Championship.
Unfortunately for Smith, he was not familiar enough with the rules of golf and it cost him a two-shot penalty, something he found out when he arrived at TPC Southwinds on Sunday.
Smith’s rules violation occurred on the fourth hole during his third round. He found the water on the par three hole and per the rules, was required to take full relief — two club lengths from the point of entry, no nearer the hole. In the picture, it was obvious that Smith did not, in fact, take proper relief as he hit his third with his ball sitting on the red hazard line.
Officials discovered the violation after reviewing footage from the third round and looked at the spot where Smith played his third. 3 of Smith’s drop at the fourth hole, a par 3. The footage shows Smith dropping and playing his next shot from the hazard line, which is a violation of Rule 17.1 (when ball is in penalty area), turning his bogey-four into a triple-bogey six.
Instead of starting the final round at 11-under par, he was back to nine-under, four shots back of overnight leader J.J. Spaun.
“When I asked him the question (if his golf ball was on the hazard line), unfortunately, he said to me, ‘No, the ball was definitely touching the line,’” said Gary Young, the PGA Tour’s chief referee. “At that point there’s no turning back. That was a moment where I know that the player has knowledge that the ball was touching the line, he just simply didn’t understand the rule that it requires the entire ball to be outside of the penalty area and in his relief area.
“His answer to me was, ‘The rules are the rules,’” Young said. “He just accepted the two-stroke penalty — he very calmly left the office and he just went about his business for the day.”
Smith showed no lingering issues as he birdied his first hole of the day to get back to 10-under par. But right after that, it became a struggle for Smith. He was holing nice putts but they were par-savers. A bogey at the ninth put him back to nine-under. Then he made a second straight at the easy 10th. He didn’t make another birdie until the par five 16th and finished with an even-par round of 70 and at nine-under, he tied for 13th and dropped from second to third on the FedEx points list.
Smith was center-stage all week as The (London) Telegraph reported that he has already signed a contract to join the LIV exhibition series and is being paid a whopping $100 million. Fellow Aussie Cameron Percy confirmed that Smith “is gone” along with fellow Aussie Marc Leishman. Smith refused to deny the report earlier last week at his press conference.
Carl Yuan Heads Class Of 25 New PGA Tour Members From Korn Ferry Tour:
Carl Yuan from China finished No. 1 in the regular season Korn Ferry points race and heads a class of 25 players who earned PGA Tour cards for the upcoming season.
Robby Shelton, winner of Sunday’s Pinnacle Bank Championship in Omaha, was second behind Yuan. Shelton closed with a 65 to edge Ben Taylor by a shot. Taylor was also in the top 25, the runner-up spot moved him from 23rd to ninth.
Lucky No. 25 was Anders Albertson. He missed the cut in Omaha and anxiously awaited the final tally.
14 Comments
baxter cepeda
Tom didn’t mention a few important details. First, the pga tour rules staff saw the obvious rules violation situation play out live and did nothing.
The lazy answer they gave is they assumed the player would know and wouldn’t do anything wrong. But again, what happened is extremely obvious and they were watching it live.
Only when one of those characters from these rules geniuses decided to watch a late nite rerun did this ridiculous process start.
But again make zero mistake, these rules officials saw this much earlier. They saw it live. It didn’t come to their attention from some sort of quality control review. It’s literally dumb bad luck this one guy happened to catch the guy leaving for LIv.
Now yes, the ruling is correct.
Some will question the intentions. As will I. But if nothing else the timing shows the negligence of the pga tour rules staff; not to mention the usga and their terrible ability to make clear rules such as being consistent between red and white line situations.
There is no doubt this looks bad on the pga tour staff. I would go deep into conspiracy theories as I’m sure many are but I know this organization too well to give them that much credit.
That being said the rules guys usually do nothing unless a situation is served on their lap —funny they say there is precedent for this situation because precedent may have been 2 times if that—so it is questionable they actually caught and did something on their own when it happens to be a LIv guy no one wants to be there.
Then the fact they waited until right before Cam was on the range Sunday morning isn’t great either. Also well after he was told of the penalty his old score was still on the leaderboard as he warmed up. The officials knew the nite before; although again they knew or at least should have known well before that.
What effect all this has on gambling I don’t know.
What effect this has on Cam, a guy the pga tour clearly doesn’t want to win, I don’t know.
Why no additional strokes were added for signing an incorrect scorecard, I don’t know.
What I do know is the usga still has rules on the books where officials like say those at the pga tour can easily not see anything when it comes to guys they like but then suddenly out of nowhere can catch some infractions well after the fact of guys they don’t like. Only to then inform them way too late, to the point where a guy in starting the final round playing with the wrong group based on his score; which of course on its own can be extremely unnerving.
There is talk for days in this situation. But I’ll leave it at that.
Tom Edrington
SHAME ON CAM FOR NOT KNOWING ONE OF THE MOST OBVIOUS, WELL-KNOWN RULES OF GOLF, I LEARNED THIS AS A JUNIOR … Baxter, your distain for the PGA Tour comes out in nearly every comment you make……It is incredibly venomous …. you and The Lamest Commissioner — Best Friends Forever….
baxter cepeda
As you know I’ve been critical of the pga tours handling of rules for a long while….long before LIv.
Yes it is NOT good for Cam not to know such a basic rule.
I’ve also expressed at length how annoyed I am at world class golfers of all levels not knowing 101 rules of golf.
We deal with it all the time. Even when my girls try to help their talented but ignorant contemporaries, these girls do the same thing as a pro, which is to sit and wait for a slow and likely negligent rules official… just in case.
One time my daughter and her friend were trying to help another girl with a proper ruling but she waited for an official who gave her the wrong ruling. But in his defense this rules guy was just a volunteer.
When actual rules professionals don’t know or act on rules correctly —at least in a timely fashion— what are they good for?
Like JY Kos caddie they hardly have to do nothing which only highlights when they mess up the few things they have to do.
The pga tour rules guy didn’t even know almost 24 hours later if Cam even dropped twice before placing. I mean how little attention to detail can these guys have?
Tom I call em like I see em.
A writer on USA Today commented that Tiger should take the pga tour commissioner job. Basically arguing the pga tour needs someone whom can actually handle this mess the pga tour is in.
I have zero disdain for the pga tour. In fact i absolutely love the pga tour Jack and Arnie helped create. I always tell people my claim to fame is watching more pga tour than anyone.
But for this reason I see a lot of need for improvement and have come to the conclusion —as I’ve been stating for a long time— and many others have increasingly said as well—the pga tour needs new leadership; leadership whom may or may not change a lot of the staff, including rules (which I realize that regime just changed).
At least slugger white really does nothing…for LIv now. This new regime on Tour still does nothing but pop up once in a while just to highlight how out of it they can be.
Again the usga is partly to blame. The new rules have just confused people who know rules while not really making any more people better with rules. But even working with these over complicated rules the pga tour can do better.
The key here is it’s 2022. These rules officials cannot continue to be so lazy at their job in this social media era where geeks can highlight their work. We’re long past a few beat writers just trying to make deadline. People don’t miss a thing these days. And these mistakes from rules officials truly do effect credibility and integrity of the competition.
Tom Edrington
Note to Baxter and USA Today (a real rag) writer: They can’t afford to pay Tiger’s annual income; A player has never been commissioner – closest was Deane Beman, great amateur player (I played in the same events as him when I was a teenager) and Deane played the Tour as well…..Deane wanted me to come work at the Tour but I stayed in Tampa…..I’m thinking another positive for LIV is no drug testing (DJ likes that)…..and there’s those wonderful political rallies as well….what a great place that is!
baxter cepeda
No one thinks they can actually afford Tiger but there about —I don’t know what’s the global population at?—better options than the current.
How can you say a player has never been commissioner but in the same breath say deane played on Tour? Good enough for me.
The pga tour did not have drug testing until like last week; or at least until golf became an Olympic sport. If Liv guys are going to want to play Olympics they will need to test as well.
Tom Edrington
Oh the PGA Tour does drug testing on a regular basis — remember when DJ “stepped away” for a while, he flunked a drug test…and as for Deane, yes brief career, but that is ancient history…..back when I covered the Tour in the 70s…..a player has never even been considered since then….same for other major sports — former players have not been commissioners…..I do know one former player who is now easily, The Lamest Commissioner In All The Land–
baxter cepeda
Again testing didn’t really start until the IOC got involved, which has been a while now. dJs situation may have been just after testing started but I’m not sure DJs hiatus was from testing; it may have been behavior or something else.
The world surf league has been using former competitors as commissioners quite a bit. In some ways it holds them back at the corporate level but These people often know exactly what their competition needs, day to day to long term, and are making all the necessary moves, which is keeping the product fresh and therefore on a steady growth. Surfing fans around the glob increasingly don’t miss a heat. Surfing is not the nfl or even the pga tour, but these two orgs can learn a lot from the wsl and Livs of the world. They both create a tight package that aims to bring the elite of elite together about a dozen times a year. This is exactly what sports fans want from these types of individual sports. And what the top athletes want. To play less but always together.
Tom Edrington
Wait a minute, whoaaaaaaa Baxter, you’re comparing the world surf league to a MAJOR sport?? Man are you reaching….can’t wait to run this up the flagpole with my local readers/inner circle, they will be quite entertained! By the way, Monahan holds open meetings and nothin is out-of-bounds, including his job/performance…..if he was as lousy as you say he is, I’m sure a lot of players would show up and let him know how they feel…..
petertelfer
if the rules of golf are too complex, meaningless, arcane, maybe it is time to change the rules.
if cam smith’s ball is half an inch to the left, or right of a red line, does it matter?
if he is not gaming the system, but playing by the spirit of the rule, that should be enough.
there will be enough scrutiny of Patrick and others that the game will not be harmed.
Tom Edrington
Yes, it does matter, this has been a LONG STANDING rule of golf, when taking relief from a hazard (red line), you take COMPLETE relief, it’s been around since I was a junior then high school golfer in the 60s, it’s one everyone knows. Jack Nicklaus was a veritable walking rules manual; If you are going to play golf, you better know the rules because for the longest time this has been a gentleman’s game; Tour players have consistently called rules violations on themselves over the years; Too many of the new generation of players don’t know the rules and that’s on them……you are wrong in your assertation that if his ball was a half-inch from the line, he’d be fine, no, that is wrong, he’d still be standing inside the hazard….complete relief means two club lengths from the hazard (red) line no nearer the hole…..As for Patrick, I’m guessing you’re referring to Reed, who was a documented cheater (read the book) in his college days and got caught red-handed on camera down there in the Bahamas. There used to be a series of commercials that explained the rules and it might have been McCord demonstrating and the catch phrase he finish with was: “If you wanna play the game, you gotta know the rules!”
baxter cepeda
I remember that. How good is McCord at golf broadcasting man?
I agree with Tom about the rule is the rule but the rules are still terrible and confusing—and the evidence shows again pga tour rules officials are asleeep at the wheel as they should have caught this LIVE.
The logic for doing nothing is beyond me.
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As for the previous post I made it made pretty clear the world surf league is not at the same level. But I’m not concerned about your boys getting a laugh because they are ignorant to how big surfing is.
As I write this right now people around the world —even in Ohio— are going about their day watching world surf league from Teahopoo in Tahiti live. If you are ignorant to this event tune in; it’s by far the best sporting event on at the minute. Epic waves. Danger. Incredible technique. Great athletes. Beautiful location. Affluent viewership. From Brazil to South Africa, Australia, France, Portugal, all over the South Pacific, both coasts and Hawaii, and many other laces, tons of coast people (and many others) are watching this religiously and not caring about anything else really.
And a lot of this growth has to do with what their athlete commissioners have done to take advantage of their knowledge of the sport; but also they are usually younger than typical commissioners so they have a much better pulse on the habits of the next generation.
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Monahan holds meetings now. I know. Give me a break. What’s her name said sometimes only a couple guys show up, sometimes 10.
Whatever the number these guys contracts literally say they cannot disparage the commissioner; if that was in my contract and considering what Monahan has done of late; the last thing I would do is tell him how much he Fd things up to his face…well.. maybe I would…but most of these guys won’t.
The players seem to be getting work done with Monahan out of the room. Tiger is pulling a LeBron move; as in taking over. Pay or no pay.
These remaining golden boys of the pga tour —led by the actual gold of golf— really seem to be going over the head of the Commissioner.
I am puzzled how tigers boys want to put the best of the best together more often but don’t want to play with the ever growing list of top players at LIv.
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This reminds me of Rahms recent logic where he doesn’t like head starts in the playoffs but also would not start even.
Again for me the top guys maybe need BYES. But they absolutely do need to start even.
Surfing (again) does something new for its finals where 5 goes against 4 and the winner goes against 3, winner of that against 2, then the top seed plays whomever comes out for the season chip. This system is actually not better than what surfing had previously ending at Pipeline—long story— but this system like many others would absolutely be better for the pga tours season finale than the head start playoffs or the silly points playoffs.
I personally do like whomever wins east lake is the champ. Again some guys like Scottie and Zalatoris should and pretty much do get straight passes to east lake. That should be enough!
If not then let’s just give Scottie the chip now for this season.
You can still have some system that rewards the most consistent players all season. They pretty much do have that. The pga tour already has like 50 systems, maybe just give that top guy even more.
This season for example give Scottie a ton of money before the playoffs start.
But then let’s get to some straight up exciting playoffs already!
Who cares that Scottie won a bunch of tournaments mainly before summer.
Playoff time is what should matter in the playoffs.
Tom Edrington
Baxter: The rules are not “terrible and confusing” what the heck, I had a total understanding of them by age 15…..junior golf in the Md.-Va.-DC metro area could be treacherous at times, there was a lot of inter-club summer matches and believe me, those kids would call an infraction on you in a New York Minute……so we all KNEW the rules, when I started getting good enough to compete, I read the rules book from cover-to-cover; As for Monahan, people only show up at “meetings” when they are pissed off, I’ve been on HOA boards the past 20 or so years, when all is well, no one’s there, when people are mad or distressed about something, they’ll show up in droves……kinda like the old days of the newspaper biz; A complimentary article on a subject — no phone calls, etc. (no social media back then, letter and phone calls were the push-back); Write about a controversy and you get all sort of calls, many ugly; Our old saying in the Tribune days is that you weren’t famous until you had a death threat called it…..Took me about nine months to get one!…LOL–By the way, Scottie did pick up some bonus money that rewarded his consistency…..$4 million from Comcast and $1 million from AON; Hey, in the NFL, you can go undefeated but lose in the playoffs and your season is over…..harsh but reality…..I wrote about the “strokes given” when they started doing that, I’m with Jon Rahm……everyone should be on equal footing at the Tour Championship……and QUADRUPLE points is a bit steep if you ask me……hell, you should get QUARDRUPLE points for a major!!!
baxter cepeda
Credit to you Tom for knowing the rules. No doubt if people spend time on the rules, they aren’t impossible to learn. But they are too complicated for most which is why they modernized them …they made some good changes but many just create confusion with the old rules now.
Back to that story with the girls I mentioned, the one girl who didn’t know critical details about provisional balls, was telling my girl she had read that book cover to cover as she was showing her ignorance. But somehow that meant she was right. The golf rules It’s just not a book you can read cover to cover like catcher in the rye or whatever it’s called (clearly i haven’t read that). That’s like reading a law book cover to cover. It’s important to really break down each situation slowly and carefully when learning.
I look at the rules book and app here and there but the way I learned golf rules at a higher level than most competitors is by observing those rulings during events covered on tv. You really learn so much that way.
I know the regular season top guys get a ton of bonuses already which is why it drives me nuts the players are often agains a true playoff. Rahm said he was against everyone starting even; based on what he was saying the reported asked straight ipnof they should start even at east lake; which got me super excited; but sadly he said heck no. So rahm like most pga tour guys wants a playoff but it just can’t be a playoff in case he won 4 regular events before summer.
So lame. What’s it going to take for these pga tour players and brass to realize a true playoff could help them more than anything in their battle with LIv?
We want a true playoff and we want it now!
Tom Edrington
Things got very bungled years ago when The Stinkin’ Veej won the FedEx Cup with three events to go or something like that…….Giving a world-class player 10 shots to start the Tour Championship, well, you know I’m with Jon Rahm Rodriguez on that one…….As for the rulse, Cam screwed up one of the easiest rules in the book, red line hazard: point of entry, two club lengths no nearer the hole, player must take full relief and that’s why the “two club lengths” is in there….Cam took no club lengths…..dropped it right on the red line……unfathomable…