During Masters week, the No. 1 question I was asked related to Tiger Woods’ two-stroke penalty after a rules official gave him permission to drop his ball. This raises the question of allowing a ruling reversal – including a penalty – to be enforced after a tournament committee reviewed a tape or somebody calling in after seeing it on television.
My main objective is televised golfers are subjected to more rulings over competitors who were not televised and have less televised rounds.
I feel Woods should demand equal airtime for all players and not allow phone calls or reviewed tapes to reverse a rules official.
Naturally, if you must broadcast the same amount of airtime for every player from first to last place, the viewers would turn away, and the tournament would be dropped from television. Sponsors would soon follow.
To me, the answer is clear. Tournaments should not allow phone-in rulings or the use of tapes to have an impact on tournaments.
Do not overrule the official involved in a ruling and penalize the player for following the official’s direction. They may wish to use the suggestions when reviewing the tournament by the officials for future events, but stay out of a current event. We normally do not have officials on the course when playing our rounds, so it is up to us to be responsible for following the rules. When there is an official available to us – say in an NCGA event – we follow the advice of the official.
Regripping clubs
As a rule of thumb, you should try to regrip your clubs after every 40 rounds of golf. If you hit a large number of range balls, you may want to regrip sooner. If you don’t practice, regrip after 50 rounds. To add life to your grips, try to clean your grips by using warm water, general soap and a rough towel. If you do not play more than once a week, regrip your clubs at least once a year.
Time for fairway daisies
This is the time for the white fairway daisies to cover the golf courses. Please be patient as the environmentally accepted application requires the outside temperature to be at least 72 degrees before it can be applied to remove the daisies. When the spring temperatures rise in the early mornings, all the golf courses will be spraying the daisies.
