The world is full of zingers. Everyone knows the type: they can't wait to discover someone else making a mistake, then ratting them out in hopes of getting them in dutch with some higher authority. It must be some deep-seated feeling of self-loathing or lack of self-esteem in which happiness only can be found in making others as miserable as they are.
Golf has its share of zingers. TV golf viewers, sitting at home wringing their hands just waiting for an improperly placed ball, illegal drop or some other version of golf fake news have cost players a chance at major championships and untold earnings.
The USGA and R&A finally have pulled the rug out from underneath those couch-dwelling tattletales, and it's about time. Beginning Jan. 1, the game's ruling bodies no longer will accept TV viewers' calls, emails, letters or smoke signals as they attempt to turn in rule-breakers like Lexi Thompson or Craig Stadler. Instead, the game's various stakeholders, including the PGA Tour, European Tour, PGA of America, LPGA and Ladies European Tour will have to monitor TV video in a search-and-destroy mission for rules infractions.
There is some good and bad to this.
It's about time golf's governing bodies told viewers at home to mind their own business. Applying irregular penalties to select video clips turned in by random viewers ignores other potential infractions that are not captured by TV, thus applying different rules to different players.
What other sport allows viewers at home to decide the outcome of a contest? Other than the recent drama that was the University of Tennessee trying to hire its next football coach, which was complicated by "fans" staging a revolution on social media to block at least one hire, the answer is "none."
Handing out stroke penalties for infractions that someone in Timbuktu noticed on their 50-inch LG cost Lexi Thompson a chance to win a major last year at the LPGA's ANA Inspiration and torpedoed Craig Stadler's chances at Torrey Pines in 1987. Things turned ugly in 2013 when Champions Tour player David Eger - from his home in Florida - turned in Tiger Woods for an improper drop during the Masters.
That still leaves the game's competitive bodies pouring over video looking for infractions. Do we really want to subject golf to hours of instant video replay? Does anyone want to relive the debacle during the 2016 U.S. Open and what caused Dustin Johnson's ball to move?
The USGA and R&A also have adopted a new rule that eliminates a 2-stroke penalty for signing a scorecard when the player is unaware of the penalty.
"The level of collaboration with our partners has been both vital and gratifying as we look to the future," said Thomas Pagel, USGA senior director of the Rules of Golf and Amateur Status. "As technology has continued to evolve, it has allowed us to evolve how we operate, as well."
David Rickman, Executive Director Governance at The R&A, said, "This has clearly become an important issue in the sport that we felt we should address at this stage ahead of the implementation of the updated Rules of Golf in 2019.
"We have concluded that whilst players should continue to be penalized for all breaches of the Rules during a competition, including any that come to light after the score card is returned, an additional penalty for the scorecard error is not required."
The new protocols also recognize the importance of limiting video review to material obtained from the committee's broadcast partner. Other video, including that from an individual's smartphone or camera, will not be used.
Just ditch video replay entirely.
Golf is a game built on integrity and self-reporting of violations. For the most part, it works. Professional golfers largely adhere to those unwritten rules, with the obvious exception being when they are unaware that they have committed an infraction in the first place.
If that model worked for the first 500 years, why change it now?