Michelle Wie needs to learn the rules

[TWShoot67]

The 714-page Rules book is a hard one to swallow. But there are a handful of rules that all golfers should etch to memory, and not grounding your club in a hazard (Rule 13-4b) is one of them.

 

Michelle Wie claims she understands this rule, but how many times can one golfer cough up the "I'm an innocent victim" response after being penalized by an official?

 

Wie was on the par-5 11th hole when she hit her ball in hazard near the edge of the water. She splashed out, and after seeing that the ball advanced just a few feet and didn't escape the hazard, she grounded her club by her left foot. She finished the hole thinking she saved an amazing par, only to be told that she had been penalized for breaking Rule 13-4b.

 

What ensued after the round was a heated debate. While footage of the incident indicates that she deserved the two-stroke penalty, Wie claimed she was using the club to regain her balance and therefore should not incur the penalty.

 

"I know what it looks like, but it was a really slippery spot," Wie told the officials after her round. "It seems really unfair because I know I was off balance."

 

Wie added: "You were not me, and you can't give me a penalty for what it looks like. You don't know for a fact that I was not off balance."

 

Had Wie not been penalized, she would have finished in a tie for second place, not sixth. That drop equates to about $91,000 in prize money.

 

This isn't Wie's first rules faux pas. Let's tally up what the other infractions have cost her:

 

-2005 Samsung World Championship: This was Wie's first tournament as a professional, and she inadvertently dropped the ball closer to the hole while taking relief. That inch or two cost her a cool $53,126.

 

-2006 Women's British Open: Wie was in greenside bunker during the second round and hit a piece of moss behind her ball during her backswing. That deducted two strokes from her score, which amounted to about $4,000 and lots of lost momentum heading into the weekend.

 

-2008 LPGA State Farm Classic: In my opinion, this infraction it the most mind-boggling of all. After an amazing 67 and a third-place finish, Wie was disqualified for not signing her scorecard after the second round. This DQ cost her $113,169.

 

Total setback? About $261,295. That kind of money could help you buy several tall stacks of Rules books.

 

--Ashley Mayo

 

Read More http://www.golfdigest.com/golf-digest-woman/blogs/golf-digest-woman/2010/03/wies-260000-mistakes.html#ixzz0jcXK3g6C

[SierraStar]

I think Wie is a bit of a dim bulb. I know she went to Stanford, but like you said, this isn't the first time. Does she have the mental capacity to be a professional and handle all of those "rules"? I'm not convinced.

[GolfSpy Dave]

If the ball had gotten out of the hazard, then would she have been OK?

because it was still in, then the grounding was called, right?

[jamo]

If the ball had gotten out of the hazard, then would she have been OK?

because it was still in, then the grounding was called, right?

 

That is correct sir. It is the same way with sand traps.

[Addicted2Golf]

I saw the infraction last night on TGC. It was one of the main stories they were running on Golf Central (I'm sure Wie is thrilled).

 

I understand the ruling, but that was a bunch of bull crap. She grounded her club outside of the water hazard and wasn't testing any lie that would have impacted how she would have played the shot. Technically, she should have been dinged but they need to change the rule to account for that situation then because I would have been pissed too.

 

This is one of those times when the rule works against the game, not to protect the integrity of it.

[HoosierGolfer]

I think Wie is a bit of a dim bulb. I know she went to Stanford, but like you said, this isn't the first time. Does she have the mental capacity to be a professional and handle all of those "rules"? I'm not convinced.

I agree. Watching her banter back and forth at the end of the tournament with the officials was hard to watch. She needs to grow up for sure and accept the fact that she grounded the club. Off balance my a--!

[HoosierGolfer]

I saw the infraction last night on TGC. It was one of the main stories they were running on Golf Central (I'm sure Wie is thrilled).

 

I understand the ruling, but that was a bunch of bull crap. She grounded her club outside of the water hazard and wasn't testing any lie that would have impacted how she would have played the shot. Technically, she should have been dinged but they need to change the rule to account for that situation then because I would have been pissed too.

 

This is one of those times when the rule works against the game, not to protect the integrity of it.

I think if my memeory is correct, there was a painted red line marking the hazard, and she clearly grounded her club inside the line, thus inside the hazard.

[Addicted2Golf]

I think if my memeory is correct, there was a painted red line marking the hazard, and she clearly grounded her club inside the line, thus inside the hazard.

 

On the bank, but not in the water.

[Tony Covey MGS]

On the bank, but not in the water.

 

The boundaries of a hazard aren't defined on the basis of wet/dry. The boundaries of the hazard are by...well, the boundaries of the hazard (that red line she was clearly on the inside of). To avoid penalty, she had two options:

 

 

• get the ball out of the hazard
  
• don't ground the club
  

 

She failed at the first, did the 2nd. It's fairly cut and dry. The rules don't allow for interpretation for what her intent was when she grounded the club. She claims it was to maintain her balance. The video doesn't support that. Clearly she wasn't about to fall over, although she did express concern about getting wet in her white skirt. Poor baby.

 

How would you change the rule? Would you allow a player to ground the club only after the player has failed at the initial attempt to clear the hazard. She may not have been testing the lie itself, but you could argue that she might have been testing ground condition (soft, firm, etc.). The rules are written so that officials don't have to worry about what the player might be thinking. Would the game be better if we threw out penalty strokes because of thinking along the lines of "yes, I broke the rules, but here's my logic..."

 

It's not a BS call, not in the least. If anything, it's evidence that for all of her improvement, Michelle Wie still has trouble keeping her head in the game.

[bp4455]

Wie clearly grounded her club inside the red hazard line. She was not losing her balance. Two stroke penalty. End of discussion.

 

What troubles me more is her attitude. I thought she had changed (matured) at the Solheim Cup but I'm now inclined to believe those who claim her behavior there was programmed to restore her image.

 

The Wie I saw sunday was the same spoiled brat I witnessed in Charleston in 2008 when she completely disrespected Annika and I am disappointed.

 

I don't want to dislike her but I am now of the opinion she is an airhead who doesn't know the rules of golf and a liar as well. After she saw the video in the scorer's tent she should have owned up to her mistake and let it go.

 

She probably has a dozen people on her payroll including a manager. Nobody can straighten this kid out?

[Jballmn]

The $91,000 for that is hard to swallow.

 

Who is her caddy that lets her have so many costly penalties??

[HoosierGolfer]

Wie clearly grounded her club inside the red hazard line. She was not losing her balance. Two stroke penalty. End of discussion.

 

What troubles me more is her attitude. I thought she had changed (matured) at the Solheim Cup but I'm now inclined to believe those who claim her behavior there was programmed to restore her image.

 

The Wie I saw sunday was the same spoiled brat I witnessed in Charleston in 2008 when she completely disrespected Annika and I am disappointed.

 

I don't want to dislike her but I am now of the opinion she is an airhead who doesn't know the rules of golf and a liar as well. After she saw the video in the scorer's tent she should have owned up to her mistake and let it go.

 

She probably has a dozen people on her payroll including a manager. Nobody can straighten this kid out?

 

I agree on every point!

[HoosierGolfer]

The boundaries of a hazard aren't defined on the basis of wet/dry. The boundaries of the hazard are by...well, the boundaries of the hazard (that red line she was clearly on the inside of). To avoid penalty, she had two options:

 

 

• get the ball out of the hazard
  
• don't ground the club
  

 

She failed at the first, did the 2nd. It's fairly cut and dry. The rules don't allow for interpretation for what her intent was when she grounded the club. She claims it was to maintain her balance. The video doesn't support that. Clearly she wasn't about to fall over, although she did express concern about getting wet in her white skirt. Poor baby.

 

How would you change the rule? Would you allow a player to ground the club only after the player has failed at the initial attempt to clear the hazard. She may not have been testing the lie itself, but you could argue that she might have been testing ground condition (soft, firm, etc.). The rules are written so that officials don't have to worry about what the player might be thinking. Would the game be better if we threw out penalty strokes because of thinking along the lines of "yes, I broke the rules, but here's my logic..."

 

It's not a BS call, not in the least. If anything, it's evidence that for all of her improvement, Michelle Wie still has trouble keeping her head in the game.

 

Once again, I agree with every point! VERY easy basic rule that no-one should forget.

[NGage]

Well, the simple fact is either she's lying in an attempt to get out of a penalty...or she really did use it for support on a slippery surface. That, to me, is the bigger issue.

 

Usually the player is the sole determinate in those situations, so I'm a bit surprised they went against her on the ruling.

[Addicted2Golf]

The boundaries of a hazard aren't defined on the basis of wet/dry. The boundaries of the hazard are by...well, the boundaries of the hazard (that red line she was clearly on the inside of). To avoid penalty, she had two options:

 

 

• get the ball out of the hazard
  
• don't ground the club
  

 

She failed at the first, did the 2nd. It's fairly cut and dry. The rules don't allow for interpretation for what her intent was when she grounded the club. She claims it was to maintain her balance. The video doesn't support that. Clearly she wasn't about to fall over, although she did express concern about getting wet in her white skirt. Poor baby.

 

How would you change the rule? Would you allow a player to ground the club only after the player has failed at the initial attempt to clear the hazard. She may not have been testing the lie itself, but you could argue that she might have been testing ground condition (soft, firm, etc.). The rules are written so that officials don't have to worry about what the player might be thinking. Would the game be better if we threw out penalty strokes because of thinking along the lines of "yes, I broke the rules, but here's my logic..."

 

It's not a BS call, not in the least. If anything, it's evidence that for all of her improvement, Michelle Wie still has trouble keeping her head in the game.

 

Thanks for explaining the rule to me. I knew the rule, but whatever.

 

As I stated, I know she was clearly in violation of the rule as it is written. I just think golf has too many rules and the grounding your club penalty IMO does more harm than good.

 

At the end of the day, is it really a big deal if I gain a little better knowledge about the conditions of the hazard (if everyone else can do it too). Don't I have to still execute the shot regardless? Maybe somebody can explain to me why this rule was enacted in the first place. What match changing event triggered its adoption?

 

Edit: Just to be clear, I'm not talking about doing anything at address. She wasn't at address when the infraction occurred. And that is what I am specifically referring to.

[NGage]

Here's Stephanie Wei's take:

 

While I was away on my enlightening little research trip and cut off from the real world last weekend, I missed the greatest reality show ever to air on the Golf Channel — Michelle Wie Unplugged.

 

By now, I'm sure most of you have heard what happened. But a quick recap via the AP:

 

Michelle Wie was penalized two strokes for grounding her club in a hazard after hitting out of the water on the 11th hole in the final round of the Kia Classic at La Costa on Sunday.

 

Wie was notified of the penalty by LPGA rules official Doug Brecht a few holes later. At the time, she was five strokes behind leader Hee Kyung Seo.

 

With her right foot in the water, Wie hit her submerged ball in a spray of water, with the ball moving only a few inches onto the rough. She then let her club touch the ground, giving her a double-bogey 7.

 

Wie ended up with a 72 to tie for fifth at 4 under.

 

“It just doesn't seem right,” Wie told Brecht on the course.

 

After her round, Wie went to a TV truck to review video with officials. The issue played out for 15 minutes live on Golf Channel.

 

Wie violated rule 13-4b by touching her club in the hazard and the two-stroke penalty cost her a T2 finish and about $89,000. While money probably wasn't a concern of hers, a runner-up title wouldn't have been bad to add to her resume. But it was Wie's behavior that incited a controversial discussion. Mostly because of her troubled history with well-publicized, infamous run-ins with the rules. You know, like grounding her club in a bunker at the 2006 British Open or forgetting to sign her scorecard, etc. After being blasted by the media and fans for years, public opinion was turning in her favor after playing the heroine at last summer's Solheim Cup and (finally) winning as a professional last October.

 

Unfortunately, the way she handled herself has given another reason for people to attack her. I'll admit I have a soft spot for her, so I'm not going to call out the special forces. And while I'd hate to call her a spoiled brat, she definitely acted like one. (I would say it sucked that it was aired for the world to see, but everyone said it was must-see TV.) If I were in the situation, I'd probably grovel a little bit. But from what I've seen and what I'm told, she made the wrong call to drag on the discussion with the officials. Her argument was pretty ridiculous and weak, too:

 

I thought it looked differently than — they interpreted it differently than what I felt. I knew that I did ground the club, that was a fact, but that was the only fact.

I did call for a ruling; I knew I did that, but at the same time I knew that I felt off-balance. I closed my eyes when I hit the shot and I ground my club so I wouldn't fall into the water. I was wearing a white skirt.

Oh no, please tell me she didn't actually say that. But she did. Wie, who a few years ago was clueless about the rules, appears to have taken up the advice to read the Rules of Golf. So while she was in the moment, she accidentally grounded her club. When she realized afterward that it was a violation, she recalled that she could use the “I was losing my balance and didn't want to fall” excuse. It's like she was taking what she had learned in a philosophy class at Stanford and translating it to the situation. (Obviously I'm only speculating because I have no idea what she was thinking or feeling.) While it's one thing to use the rules to your advantage with integrity, it's another to come up with an afterthought and use it as an excuse, violating the spirit of the game.

 

She made a mistake. It happens. But she shouldn't have tirelessly squabbled with officials to win a battle she was going to lose, anyway. Unfortunately, she lost some goodwill points on Sunday and hasn't grown up as much as we'd thought. At least in this scenario. Anyway, moving on!

 

One last thing — despite my efforts, I couldn't find footage of what I'm told was a painful, drawn-out whinefest by Wie in the trailer. Which begs the very serious question: Why the hell hasn't anyone put it on YouTube yet? Thanks to Lawrence Donegan's blog, I was directed to a link that had a small segment of riveting coverage. But come on, SOMEONE PUT IT ON YOUTUBE ALREADY! Please.

[PingManKMB]

Simply.... Wie does NOT understand the most crucial rules of the game. And this could be in part because all these PGA and LPGA folks have the courtesy of having a rules official at their beck and call. She has had multiple infractions now, and where the heck is her caddie or someone else to say, "whoa, be careful... let's make sure of this first...." She is a smart girl but must be getting ahead of herself or something.

[PingManKMB]

Here's Stephanie Wei's take:

 

While I was away on my enlightening little research trip and cut off from the real world last weekend, I missed the greatest reality show ever to air on the Golf Channel — Michelle Wie Unplugged.

 

By now, I'm sure most of you have heard what happened. But a quick recap via the AP:

 

Michelle Wie was penalized two strokes for grounding her club in a hazard after hitting out of the water on the 11th hole in the final round of the Kia Classic at La Costa on Sunday.

 

Wie was notified of the penalty by LPGA rules official Doug Brecht a few holes later. At the time, she was five strokes behind leader Hee Kyung Seo.

 

With her right foot in the water, Wie hit her submerged ball in a spray of water, with the ball moving only a few inches onto the rough. She then let her club touch the ground, giving her a double-bogey 7.

 

Wie ended up with a 72 to tie for fifth at 4 under.

 

“It just doesn't seem right,” Wie told Brecht on the course.

 

After her round, Wie went to a TV truck to review video with officials. The issue played out for 15 minutes live on Golf Channel.

 

Wie violated rule 13-4b by touching her club in the hazard and the two-stroke penalty cost her a T2 finish and about $89,000. While money probably wasn't a concern of hers, a runner-up title wouldn't have been bad to add to her resume. But it was Wie's behavior that incited a controversial discussion. Mostly because of her troubled history with well-publicized, infamous run-ins with the rules. You know, like grounding her club in a bunker at the 2006 British Open or forgetting to sign her scorecard, etc. After being blasted by the media and fans for years, public opinion was turning in her favor after playing the heroine at last summer's Solheim Cup and (finally) winning as a professional last October.

 

Unfortunately, the way she handled herself has given another reason for people to attack her. I'll admit I have a soft spot for her, so I'm not going to call out the special forces. And while I'd hate to call her a spoiled brat, she definitely acted like one. (I would say it sucked that it was aired for the world to see, but everyone said it was must-see TV.) If I were in the situation, I'd probably grovel a little bit. But from what I've seen and what I'm told, she made the wrong call to drag on the discussion with the officials. Her argument was pretty ridiculous and weak, too:

 

I thought it looked differently than — they interpreted it differently than what I felt. I knew that I did ground the club, that was a fact, but that was the only fact.

I did call for a ruling; I knew I did that, but at the same time I knew that I felt off-balance. I closed my eyes when I hit the shot and I ground my club so I wouldn't fall into the water. I was wearing a white skirt.

Oh no, please tell me she didn't actually say that. But she did. Wie, who a few years ago was clueless about the rules, appears to have taken up the advice to read the Rules of Golf. So while she was in the moment, she accidentally grounded her club. When she realized afterward that it was a violation, she recalled that she could use the “I was losing my balance and didn't want to fall” excuse. It's like she was taking what she had learned in a philosophy class at Stanford and translating it to the situation. (Obviously I'm only speculating because I have no idea what she was thinking or feeling.) While it's one thing to use the rules to your advantage with integrity, it's another to come up with an afterthought and use it as an excuse, violating the spirit of the game.

 

She made a mistake. It happens. But she shouldn't have tirelessly squabbled with officials to win a battle she was going to lose, anyway. Unfortunately, she lost some goodwill points on Sunday and hasn't grown up as much as we'd thought. At least in this scenario. Anyway, moving on!

 

One last thing — despite my efforts, I couldn't find footage of what I'm told was a painful, drawn-out whinefest by Wie in the trailer. Which begs the very serious question: Why the hell hasn't anyone put it on YouTube yet? Thanks to Lawrence Donegan's blog, I was directed to a link that had a small segment of riveting coverage. But come on, SOMEONE PUT IT ON YOUTUBE ALREADY! Please.

 

 

i watched it live.... she bitched and bitched and bitched. like a broken record.