Jon Rahm Survives Memorial Mayhem, Wins And Moves To No. 1 - Dog Leg News

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Tom Edrington

Tom Edrington spent the first 10 years of his misguided youth as a sports writer for the Tampa Tribune. His career brought him face to face with many of sports greatest stars -- Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Muhammad Ali, Don Shula, countless Hall of Fame NFL stars, more PGA Tour players than he can count. In 1980 he was honored by the Golf Writers Association of America for writing the best news story that year, his coverage of Jack Nicklaus' U.S. Open victory at Baltusrol. Today, 36 years later, golf is still a great part of his life, thanks to competitive playing days and the wonderful people he has met on this fabulous journey.

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10 Comments

  1. 1

    Neunan

    Thought they discontinued using high def video to call penalties on players? Have the broadcasters become the new viewers calling in penalties? This is like Anna Nordqvist moving 3 grains of sand in that bunker!

    1. 1.1

      Tom Edrington

      True, Brandel Chamblee agrees, it should be the “naked eye” test, Rahm wasn’t aware but unfortunately, modern technology provides those closeups and once on the air, well the Genie is out of the bottle….

    2. 1.2

      baxter cepeda

      The tour actually pointed out the situation to television, which may be history for pga tour officials actually catching a penalty in their own nationally televised coverage. So congrats to them on that.

      While it sucks to penalize for barely doing something, the best thing for the sport is to penalize that.

      This new the gray area of interpretation is fallacious to say the least, and Rahms penalty proves it.

      Rahm, as he said, should get the penalty because the ball moved. But the fact some players could be forgiven for similar infractions despite clear video evidence — because of this bs rule against clear video evidence — is just ridiculous and sure to cause problems from inconsistent interpretations. This new rule actually took a lot longer to become an issue than I thought, but here it is. I think it’s only the beginning. But kudos to the tour for making the right call, as easy as the situation may have been to make it. It did come way too late after the fact. Regardless of the situation and even if the player doesn’t want to know, the player should be notified immediately. That alone makes it look like officials are deciding what to do based on the final result. Even the usga had the guts to eventually walk up to DJ on the course and say something.

      I am incredibly impressed with Rahms behavior of sorts, except for that smashed driver on 10 Sunday. But otherwise he has come a really long way, and as we can see Change for the better can also help on the wins column, at least not hurt.

      We know who should take note of Rahm.

      1. 1.2.1

        Tom Edrington

        Thanks Baxter, actually Jon slammed his driver on 11 tee because he knew it was headed for the creek.

  2. 2

    Jackg34

    If it takes several viewings of a close-up in slow motion to determine that the ball may have moved a tiny bit, the ruling should be there is no violation. It would not have been a violation when Jack or Arnold or Sam played and should not be today. If someone wants that, then every shot by every player needs to be caught on camera and examined in the same way. When are we going to get past something like this?

    1. 2.1

      Tom Edrington

      Jack: Your point is a valid one….Jon will now be aware of how easy it is to cause a ball to move when it’s in a nest, he got awful close to it and that’s why it moved and it did move….your point is good, there were probably a bunch of instances where the same thing happened to guys who were shooting 77, 78, 79, 80 or higher but there was no camera on them at all……

    2. 2.2

      baxter cepeda

      Again it’s frustrating, but the ball moved. As Tom said your points are valid.
      But When you are in the final group, these issues are more likely to come up. Unless they change the rule to say a ball can move like that, the ball moved. The tour caught it themselves and informed the television people. even Rahm agreed.
      Again the bigger issue is some weeks rules official will interpret this completely different and not penalize the player either because of the tech rule or whatever. Clearly This rule is very open for interpretation now, which is a big problem moving forward.

      1. 2.2.1

        TomD

        To avoid controversy, the ‘naked eye’ rule was established. The slow-motion, high definition, close-up camera view on its own is not allowed to establish a violation. Therefore, the PGA Tour violated its own rule.

        1. 2.2.1.1

          Tom Edrington

          We’re addressing that as I read this, check for the new post on PGA Tour News, not sure it’s a hard-fast “rule” rather than a “guideline”….the Tour operates under the Rules Of Golf as established by the USGA and the R&A.

        2. 2.2.1.2

          baxter cepeda

          As Tom said, these are not the pga tours rules. The usga and rna make them. The new rules have more problems than the old. And it really wasn’t simplified much to begin with, if anything made more complicated because people whom knew the rules now are no longer so sure of things.

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