Controversy among Mcllroy, Hovland and Spieth

[Cade Rousseau]

What’s everyone’s thoughts on the ruling today between these three gentlemen? After watching a video of the incident, it seems the three couldn’t come to a conclusion on where Rory should drop. At this point in time, you would think with the technology we have they would be able to determine from a camera angle where the ball landed. 

[THE GOLF GUY]

21 hours ago, Cade Rousseau said:

What’s everyone’s thoughts on the ruling today between these three gentlemen? After watching a video of the incident, it seems the three couldn’t come to a conclusion on where Rory should drop. At this point in time, you would think with the technology we have they would be able to determine from a camera angle where the ball landed. 

The bottom line is that tournament doesn’t have all the rule officials as in the US Open . It is up to them to come up with a fair assessment of how it is handled . Even though , I’m not much of a Rory fan , Jordan is being an ass about it to me . He’s already taking a penalty in taking the appropriate action needed to keep the pace of play . It’s not that hard of a decision as long as the three of them come to an agreement

[RickyBobby_PR]

8 hours ago, THE GOLF GUY said:

The bottom line is that tournament doesn’t have all the rule officials as in the US Open . It is up to them to come up with a fair assessment of how it is handled . Even though , I’m not much of a Rory fan , Jordan is being an ass about it to me . He’s already taking a penalty in taking the appropriate action needed to keep the pace of play . It’s not that hard of a decision as long as the three of them come to an agreement

Pace of play has zero role here. The drop needs to follow the rules of golf. Also the number of officials here compared to a U.S. open is irrelevant. There are rules officials available to make the determination. It’s on Rory to make the decision or get a rules official, his playing partners can say it crossed here or there wit whatever but they don’t have to gone to an agreement on where it crossed, that’s on the player himself

[revkev]

I did hear an interview with Spieth in which he said he was protecting the field - that is the role of fellow competitors on these matters.  Ultimately it is up to the player and whatever they choose might be subject to review later if there weren't a rules official available.  I agree that you would think with all the available technology it might seem to be easier but when you think it through it's actually not - trying to determine where a ball entered a hazard is particularly difficult - where was the device placed - that angle makes a difference - even the angle that the competitors were at makes a difference - the player or a caddy if he were directly behind the player had the best view of it. 

 

I am decidedly not a Rory fan but also not a Rory hater - I don't hate any of these guys, I just prefer some more than others.  In some ways its very unfair to Rory because there are way more eyes on him than most other players.  I have no doubt all involved were trying to proceed by the rules of golf.  

[fixyurdivot]

On 3/14/2024 at 1:18 PM, Cade Rousseau said:

At this point in time, you would think with the technology we have they would be able to determine from a camera angle where the ball landed. 

I've thought the same on these type situations because we've seen cases where live footage has been used to penalize the player after the score is posted.  But, I think @revkevmakes a great point that cases like these cannot even be helped by the camera - sue to limited angles.  I also think that unless there is a gross amount of dispute amongst the playing group, that it is not worth "nit-picking".  

[GolfSpy_SHARK]

I wish there was an ability to see it live. Like you all have said tough to have a camera catching every angle….but I don’t think it’s unreasonable. This day and age seems like it could be a pretty simple task and can remove the guessing later.

[Rob Person]

Hear me out, what IF they had an on view portable device that could help determine the point of exit ?  (Like the NFL uses?) And players/officials could use that. It definitely would take some considerable time though in reviewing.  Which is always an issue for golf.... time!

My personal opinion here, Players are always going to do their best to give THEMSELVES the best advantage possible.  And an opponent will almost always do their darndest to put that player at a disadvantage.

[billpierce]

33 minutes ago, Rob Person said:

Hear me out, what IF they had an on view portable device that could help determine the point of exit ?  (Like the NFL uses?) And players/officials could use that. It definitely would take some considerable time though in reviewing.  Which is always an issue for golf.... time!

My personal opinion here, Players are always going to do their best to give THEMSELVES the best advantage possible.  And an opponent will almost always do their darndest to put that player at a disadvantage.

Agree. Spieth may be mad from his disqualification still lol

[Subdiver1]

1 hour ago, GolfSpy_SHARK said:

but I don’t think it’s unreasonable

I'll go with Rule 20.2.c in general, the "naked eye standard."  Watching the bovine bloviations from last week where Clark's ball "moved."  Half the commentators,  TV and otherwise, don't know all the rules, or how they work together, and another portion spin it all for drama (e.g. queen of TV golf drama  Shambles).  Honestly I think we need less of the super close up stuff and all the "extras."

I missed it, that damn eork thing keeps getting in mybway of recreation!  But mybwife asked me about it and I took the drama out of it when I watched some of the interaction. I thought it looked like Jordan was doing what he said after his own debacle, showing concern that another player didn't cause themselves a DQ like he did.

I want to enjoy watching it, not get lost in the white noise.  But that's just me.

[Jonknowsgolf]

I thought it was a bit ridiculous how long the conversation took. I understand that all 3 of them want to make the right call, and I get Spieth's interest in protecting the field. But 3 grown-ass professional golfers who watched the shot and know the rules should be able to make a fairly quick assessment and determination on where it would have crossed and what is a reasonable drop. In a practice round, or a friendly match they would have felt confident with a decision in a matter of a few seconds. Quick conversation and evaluation and they all 3 would have agreed with little doubt.

[RickyBobby_PR]

1 hour ago, Jonknowsgolf said:

I thought it was a bit ridiculous how long the conversation took. I understand that all 3 of them want to make the right call, and I get Spieth's interest in protecting the field. But 3 grown-ass professional golfers who watched the shot and know the rules should be able to make a fairly quick assessment and determination on where it would have crossed and what is a reasonable drop. In a practice round, or a friendly match they would have felt confident with a decision in a matter of a few seconds. Quick conversation and evaluation and they all 3 would have agreed with little doubt.

Never assume the pros know the rules. Spieth has been dq’d at least twice for breaking the rules.

A practice round or friendly match is far different than a professional event. Theres going to be more discussion to make the determination on a possible judgement call. It’s not surprising there were different opinion on it

 

[Jonknowsgolf]

Fair point. However I believe Jordan's most recent DQ was from signing an incorrect scorecard, not an on course rules infraction.

I absolutely get that a PGA Tour event is different than a casual round. I guess what I was more referring to was that they all seemed to dance around making any actual decision or even a firm assessment of what they thought. In my experience with rules situations the resolution comes much easier when those involved are straight forward with what they saw and where they think it would have crossed, etc, even if it's just a best guess. Probably in this case calling the rules official in was for the best, but even then he didn't see it and so will rely on their accounts. And in this case it seemed like even then it was harder than it should have been for him to get anything concrete out of them. Maybe just the fact that the landing area was blind made it hard for anyone to give a definitive answer, in which case they should each just give their honest assessment of what they think. And ultimately, I guess that's what happened. The process just seemed really drawn out. But it was a hard one, that's for sure.

[RickyBobby_PR]

32 minutes ago, Jonknowsgolf said:

Fair point. However I believe Jordan's most recent DQ was from signing an incorrect scorecard, not an on course rules infraction.

Signing an incorrect scorecard is not knowing the rules because he didn’t account for penalty strokes. Which if he knew the rules he wouldn’t have done 

33 minutes ago, Jonknowsgolf said:

I guess what I was more referring to was that they all seemed to dance around making any actual decision or even a firm assessment of what they thought.

There’s no decision for either to make. It’s Rory’s decision and there’s no agreement needed from the playing partners. They were saying where they Beloit crosses compared to what Rory thought. Ultimately it’s on Rory to make the call and deal with consequences of an incorrect call.

36 minutes ago, Jonknowsgolf said:

Probably in this case calling the rules official in was for the best, but even then he didn't see it and so will rely on their accounts. And in this case it seemed like even then it was harder than it should have been for him to get anything concrete out of them.

This is the proper way. It’s on Rory and if help is needed then advice from the rules official. Spieth and hovland are almost irrelevant other than an opinion on what they saw.

 

[THE GOLF GUY]

On 3/16/2024 at 9:50 AM, revkev said:

I did hear an interview with Spieth in which he said he was protecting the field - that is the role of fellow competitors on these matters.  Ultimately it is up to the player and whatever they choose might be subject to review later if there weren't a rules official available.  I agree that you would think with all the available technology it might seem to be easier but when you think it through it's actually not - trying to determine where a ball entered a hazard is particularly difficult - where was the device placed - that angle makes a difference - even the angle that the competitors were at makes a difference - the player or a caddy if he were directly behind the player had the best view of it. 

 

I am decidedly not a Rory fan but also not a Rory hater - I don't hate any of these guys, I just prefer some more than others.  In some ways its very unfair to Rory because there are way more eyes on him than most other players.  I have no doubt all involved were trying to proceed by the rules of golf.  

Exactly , the stars of any sport are subject to more scrutiny, such as Rory ,Tiger and Lexi to name a few .