Talk of The Villages Florida - View Single Post - Spieth disqualified for an incorrect scorecard
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Old 02-18-2024, 09:17 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CoachKandSportsguy View Post
Why in today's world, with every group having a scorer, the camera men watching every hole, with web sites posting the scores, do the golfers themselves have to sign a card for their score?

So evidently they had the correct score from the scorer, so that they can compare the players' signed card against the scorers tally. . . and disqualify him. Otherwise, how would they know so quickly?

Seems like the old fashioned pre television, pre media blitz everywhere, rule that the traditionalists don't want to change, is really out of date. The rule about signing for yours and your opponents card is left over from the very old days when golfers went out alone, and the sport had to impose such rules to prevent dishonesty amongst the players.

That scenario doesn't exist in today's world, so maybe the rules of PGA tournaments need to be updated to the scorer keeping the score, so the players can focus on playing and not paperwork!

paperwork sucks
I worked the Arnold Palmer Invitational for five years and here's what I have experienced working with ShotLink at green #4 for four of those five years. Every group has a "walking scorer" who walks with that group for the entire round. He or she has a tablet on which he enters scores which are instantly transmitted to the scoring truck and from there to the media, etc. Each group also has someone carrying a sign telling the public each player's score relative to par. I can't count how many times at the conclusion of a hole the "official scorer" and the sign carrier have a debate about who scored what, to the point they often have to have a discussion with the player to get it straight. As a player I would WANT to keep my own score AND my opponent's score to make sure the "official score" was accurate.

One thing that helps now is that ShotLink does record every shot, even if it's not televised. More than once we had to radio the ShotLink truck to help us find a ball which was buried in deep rough. And they could do it by tracking the ball's path to it's general landing area.

If Spieth had checked his card against his opponents and there was a dispute over a hole ShotLink could have gone back and verified each shot on that hole. But they don't do that unless there is a dispute that can't be resolved. And that rarely happens. Spieth just didn't check the cards to note the discrepancy.