There are plenty of story lines from this year’s Masters tournament at Augusta including a 14-year-old making the cut, Tiger forgetting a rule and Adam Scott winning his first major while at the same time becoming a national hero down under.
All are worthy of some comment but I’m going to avoid the easy way out and put down some words about a troubling issue in the game of professional golf which came to light this past weekend.
How in the name of Bobby Jones is it OK for a golf fan to phone into a professional golf tournament and call a rule violation on a player?
The logic behind this situation has always escaped me. It’s nice the sport wants to get fan involvement but this is a bit extreme.
This is a game which prides itself on its players calling a violation on themselves. Players are supposed to know the rules and are expected to follow them, no matter how silly some of those rules might seem.
But having some guy sitting on his couch, munching Cheetos and drinking Orange Crush calling into say so and so just did something against the rules is just wrong.
Can you see someone at home phoning the NHL to say Crosby just high-sticked a guy and your refs just missed the call?
How about football fans phoning up to weigh in on a pass interference call which was not called?
Maybe baseball can get in on the fun and the masses can have MLB on speed dial to call balls and strikes.
There is a reason these professional sports leagues don’t allow this to happen – it’s wrong.
With the advent of HDTV, there are things which the naked eye doesn’t pick up but the camera does which raises the point of a level playing field.
Of course the high profile players will get the bulk of the coverage and so Big Brother has more chances to call in to cost them a stroke or two.
Forget belly putters and slow play for now. It’s time to get an unlisted phone number. Let the fans just watch the game instead of having an effect on it.
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