Recently I have the good fortune to visit with USGA Rules Official Paul Romano. It was challenging to limit my questions so we are going to play the back nine, the front nine and possibly the back again. I truly hope you find Paul’s thoughts/commentary as informative and as entertaining as I did.
Background/Education/Professional Career:
• University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business
• Dickinson School of Law
• Attorney/Business Consultant (Mergers & Acquisitions)
What events/experiences influenced your decision to become a USGA Rules Official? Have there been mentors along the way?
Dr. Pete Richter was my mentor and he is the person you should be interviewing for this article. He has hundreds of stories and situations (e.g. he was in the Payne Stewart group at Olympic on Saturday when the ball rolled up to the hole and then rolled 30 feet back to his feet.) He was friends with Arnie! I was playing golf with Pete and his friend Tink at Hershey Country Club in the summer of 1998 and had an unplayable lie and gave myself the correct drop and the three of us began discussing the Rules and Pete said he was looking for someone to help him with qualifiers and eventually to take his place. He said if I scored well on the Rules test he would work with me and bring me along. I studied for that first test like it was the Bar Exam and went to Chicago to take the test and scored one-hundred. Pete said he did not know anyone who scored one-hundred the first time they took the test and the rest, as they say is history. He sponsored me for the Pennsylvania Golf Association (I have been a committee member for more than twelve years) and then later I took his place on the USGA Junior Amateur Committee.
Please explain the process/timeline to become a USGA Rules Official; schooling, testing, continuing education, re-testing.
The USGA gives a class and a test in the fall of every year. To stay qualified to officiate, you must have a test score of 92 or better in any four-year time frame. I take the test every two years. I get the material and spend about forty to fifty hours studying and do about three hundred practice questions to prepare for the class and the test. My lifetime average is ninety-eight but my quest for the second one-hundred has been Kafkaesque – I have never repeated (a few ninety-nines but no more one-hundreds).
The “self-governing” philosophy of golf is unique in all of sports. How would you describe your role/personal philosophy when you are on assignment? Do you simply “guide” players or are there times when you have to “tell” players?
I follow the principle that Dr. Richter espoused which is: “Be a Forest Ranger not a Policeman.” The vast majority of the time the Rules help the player and work to his advantage and so my mind set is to approach the player and ask him if he would like to hear his options. The idea is to make sure he/she does not breach. Clearly if there is a penalty, then you must make a ruling and it is usually pretty straightforward. Often times, if you are attentive, you can prevent the major catastrophes that make the news or end up in the decision book. But here is my number one piece of advice to all the players who play the game: If you are unsure of what to do – DO NOT pick up or touch the ball. Wait for an official, or if you are playing stroke play, then play a second ball under Rule 3-3 – DO NOT pick up the ball.
Share a typical day on the course; player interaction, level of activity, etc.
At the Junior Amateur, an official is assigned to a group and walks with the match. I keep player interaction to a minimum. We are introduced at the first tee and if they talk to me, then of course, I will talk with them but I do not want to be too familiar because later in the day I could be making a ruling that is not favorable and you want to keep a separation from the player – friendly but distant. The last four matches I have refereed have been pleasant walks around the course with no rulings at all. So a perfect day for a Rules Official; free breakfast, no rulings, lunch on the veranda, two ice cream sandwiches while watching play at the end of the day and off to dinner. No weather delays and no extra-hole matches.
Toughest rule to interpret.
Rule 20-Lifting, Dropping and Placing; Playing from a Wrong Place. I always need to be careful when working out when a player may change his options or not change his options when re-dropping.
Most misunderstood rule by weekend warriors?
There is a set of situations that the weekend warrior struggles with or ignores. The dropping and re-dropping under Rule 20 are often not understood, just ignored, or people toss a ball on the ground; and of course, failure to drop along the “flag line” when a ball is lost in a water hazard. Players often just drop on the line of flight in a good lie in the fairway. And finally, the weekend warrior prefers to take the nicest point of relief instead of the nearest point of relief which often times is not in a very nice position. But, are you really going to tell one of your Dad’s playing buddies during a $2- Nassau that the nearest point of relief from the concrete cart path is the palmetto bush to the right of the path and not in the short intermediate cut of rough to the left of the path where his ball (after he places it, instead of dropping it) sits up perfectly for his three wood. As my good friend Judge Bernie Coates would say: “Play on lads.”
Most unusual and/or humorous situations you have experienced.
Round two of a thirty-six hole US Open Qualifier with an official who was a legend but will go unnamed for this article. The player shot eighty in round one so he had no chance of making the cut and he hits it in a terrible spot and a number of us end up coming to the hole to help find the ball which we find barely within the five minute window. The player then takes a swing and whiffs and now cannot get extricated, simultaneously disputing the ruling with this legendary official who worked at least fifty USGA events. The official tossed the player a tee and said: “Tee it up anywhere you would like and try not to hold up play the rest of the day” and jumped on his cart and left.
What are your thoughts on the pending 2019 rule changes?
I am for the changes. The Rules are difficult because it is an outdoor sport played on non-standard venues under a wide variety of conditions so they are never going to be easy so we should always try to make them easier to understand and interpret. People will find that the dropping rule will actually provide less relief and the shorter time to find the ball will make that penalty tougher. But the dropping rules are fairer because the player will not get an inordinate amount of relief for a wayward shot when he/she has to drop in a smaller dropping area, closer to the actual place where the ball was played to.
Jordan Spieth has been criticized for using the Rules to his advantage (i.e. British Open). Is this a fair, or unfair, accusation?
Completely fair. The game is played at the highest levels is not weekend golf and the USGA and the R&A have held the line to ensure that the common man and the pro play by the same rules and this is what makes the game unique. But tournament golf is officiated and there is immediate access to officials and the players are within their rights to get a ruling and to protect themselves against the field. Sometimes you get a great ruling like Ernie Els who was a mile left in the woods at thirteen in the Masters and got relief from material to be removed by a greens keeper (he also won the US Open because of a mistake allowing him to drop in the fairway from the rough to avoid interference from a TV crane instead of having the crane lowered). Often times, like David Frost in the British Open, they are denied relief. The game is like life. It is not always fair and conditions are not always perfect.
Continued conversation with Paul Romano/USGA Rules Official next week!
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This is a really great article.
Thanks John! More to come with Paul this Sunday!