Leading Rules Official Resigns Over Major Screw Up…And We Don’t Blame Him
- Updated: October 20, 2017
Golf Channel — The KLPGA decided to scrub first-round scores Thursday after a rules controversy broke out over the marking of balls at the KB Financial Star Championship at Black Stone Golf Club in Icheon, South Korea. It’s one of that tour’s five major championships. Hye Jin Choi and You-Na Park were each penalized two shots after the first round for picking up and marking their golf balls, believing they were on a green when it was later determined they were actually on the fringe of the green. After Choi and Park were penalized, it was learned that four other players had also picked up and marked their balls while putting from the fringe, Reuters reported. This led to the championship’s rules committee deciding not to penalize those four players and also to rescind the penalties against Choi and Park.
Reuters reported that a players committee met deep into the night after the first round, with some players threatening to quit the tournament if the penalties were rescinded and other players threatening to walk off if the penalties were enforced. The furor led to the KLPGA announcing it was wiping out first-round scores and shortening the event to 54 holes. Reuters and JTBC Golf both reported that leading rules official Jin-Ha Choi resigned over the matter.
Welcome to golf in 2017 where the rules are made up and the scores don’t matter! Seriously, what is going on here?! This situation sounds like it was handled worse than a local charity scramble. Granted it’s not the Masters, it’s still a major even if it’s on the Korean LPGA Tour. News flash: they are still professionals!
Let’s break this one down. The fact the KLPGA didn’t define what the green is prior to the start of play is problem numero uno. Then calling penalties on certain players (who are leading the event no less)….and then rescinding them after others made the same mistake seems a little too arbitrary as evidenced by the ladies who threatened to quit in the wake of this BS. So how do we fix the problem? Ah yes, just wipe out the entire first round, reset the scores and shorten the event to 54 holes like nothing happened. Brilliant! To top it all off, the leading rules official of the Tour actually resigned over this crap. Can you blame him?
While we don’t have actual video of the resignation, here’s a reenactment of how we imagine it went:
Somewhere the USGA is smiling….
