Veteran Armchair Rules Official Relieved Of Duties Following USGA Decision
- Updated: December 11, 2017
(TIS) — After a long and storied career, veteran armchair golf rules official Gerald Hall has formally been relieved of his duties after the USGA and R&A announced Monday that they would no longer be accepting viewer call-ins during professional sanctioned events.
“It’s unfortunate,” said Hall who ironically got a phone call informing him of the decision. “Who the hell is going to enforce the rules when the folks running the tournaments don’t know even know half of them?”
Calling it the end of an era is an understatement. The 82-year-old St. Louis resident, who holds the self-proclaimed title of “Rules Czar,” has been ruining golfers’ lives since 1947 starting with first televised U.S. Open when he helped Lew Worsham defeat Sam Snead in a playoff after noticing Slammin’ Sammy touch a grain of sand in a bunker.
“Ah yes, it was tough to tell with the flickering of the tube and the grainy ‘HD’ we had back then, but I know what I saw,” he recalls of the incident.
Since then, Hall has phoned in over 100 incidents from his couch which literally took trophies out of hands and money out of people’s pockets. But if you ask him, he was just doing his job.
“Golf is a game of integrity, plus I had nothing better to do,” Hall said, adding that golf’s governing bodies know “jack.”
While Hall’s services will be missed, he said he’s excited to spend more time at the local YMCA badgering volunteer referees during intramural games.
