The conversation with Paul Romano/USGA Rules Official continues!
Generally speaking, do the Tour players have a good handle on the Rules?
The only people who know less about the Rules than tour players are TV announcers.
What Rule(s) do you feel need to be modified? Can changes to the Rules influence growth of the game?
I do not have a strong opinion about any rule being modified. Golf is a game of skill and Scalia said in his dissent in PGA Tour v. Martin: “The rules are the rules…they are entirely arbitrary, and there is no basis on which anyone…can pronounce one or another of them to be ‘non-essential’ if the rule maker…deems them to be essential.” I was fine with them as written, and I am fine with the revisions and changes. My goal is to be sure that I can understand them so that I can apply them fairly and equitably.
As for the question can the Rules influence the growth of the game-my thought is no. The game is hard to play and takes time and skill to become proficient and it takes time and money to play. People do not have the time to devote to it and the demographics are unfavorable. I believe golf is reverting to the game it was in the pre-war years and that it will be played less and less by the lower and middle-class members of society. Our generation lived through the boom years where there was money to support middle-class golf and country clubs and people took the time to play the game. But parents have limited time and youth sports demand a greater percentage of that time and family’s resources. All of this impedes the growth of the game. No rule change will influence this. Even if you play under your own private rules, the game takes time, money and is difficult to play well. I think we are heading toward a future where the game will be bifurcated – the super private and wealthy clubs and inexpensive public facilities. Changing the rules will have no material impact on the demographics or the systemic sustainability that threatens the growth and viability of the game.
Based on your testing, you clearly know the Rules. Have there been times when you have been challenged to interpret a specific Rule(s) or have needed assistance from your colleagues? Have there been times when you have missed an interpretation and is so, how did you manage the situation(s)?
I have been fortunate that during USGA and tournament events I have not had too many rulings that caused an issue. As Dr. Richter said, “If you have not made a mistake you are not making rulings” but it is very hard to make an error at these tournaments (contrary to US Open issues which really are the exceptions but regrettably happening on the biggest stage) because we always call in the ruling and confirm it with the rover or official in charge. At the US Junior Amateur, you may not make a “loss of hole” ruling until you call it in on the radio and it is confirmed. At the tournament level, I have been lucky to have no difficult situations. The key is just stay humble and call in the situation even if it is obvious. What is interesting is that the experts always call in and discuss and double check something that they are certain about because they respect the process.
My biggest gaff was when I was playing with my good friend and longtime member-member partner and it was embarrassing. We are playing in a club match and we both have the same brand of driver and on hole seventeen, the caddie gave me my partner’s driver and I hit it and then realized that it was not my club. The match was All-Square at the time and I said we lost the hole and we move to eighteen with our opponents 1-Up and we halve eighteen and lose the match. The problem is that using my partner’s club is a breach of Rule 4-4 and it is not a loss of hole, it is a “match adjustment penalty” and we had actually won seventeen so we would have been 1-Up at the end of seventeen and then the match should have been adjusted to All-Square, proceeding to eighteen. The match should have gone to extra holes however the match stands as played because I made an incorrect ruling and we did not make a timely claim.
Tell us what would happen if you witness an obvious infraction on the course.
If you are assigned to a match or if you are officiating stroke play, by definition, the referee “must act on any breach of a Rule that he/she observes or is reported to him/her.”
Here is what many people do not know. In match play, unless a referee is assigned to a match by the Committee to accompany the players throughout that match, he/she has no authority to intervene in a match other than to prevent an agreement to breach the rules, enforce pace of play or to impose disqualification penalties.
Share your “Rules Official” goals and objectives. How are assignments made and how do you progress through the ranks?
Clearly the more senior you are then the more opportunities you have to officiate bigger events, but it is still mainly merit based and you must be qualified to be asked. I am on the USGA Junior Committee so I am automatically invited to that event each year. When other events are in my region, the other committees often extend an invitation to come and help with the tournaments. The different championship committees have different protocols for inviting “guest” officials.
What are the expenses associated with an assignment and are you reimbursed for any/all expenses?
My wife gets a kick out of this aspect of volunteering. She thinks it is somewhat unusual that I spend forty to sixty hours a year studying arcane rules, attend and pay for a four day seminar in Far Hills, NJ to further immerse myself in arcane rules, and then pay all my travel and hotel expenses to walk around in the heat and the rain to be available to tell a player that his ball lies on the correct side of the red line painted on the ground and it is therefore permissible to touch an insect like object that is perched on his/her golf ball. The USGA is a non-profit so you can deduct these expenses. In 2017, I think that my expenses for all golf officiating for USGA and Pennsylvania Golf Association were $6,500.
Please talk about a few memorable assignments.
In last year’s Junior Amateur, I was walking the round of 64 with the young man who ended up finishing second and we were playing a drivable par four with a lake down the left side and he pulled out a three wood. I am looking down the left side to see the splash so I can determine the drop however the ball was hit so high I could not actually see it and after a few seconds there is no splash and the player looks back at me and says “Wow, I did not think I could carry a three wood 313 yards”. He went on to make a two to win the match handily.
Two years ago in Houston, the heat index was 106 and we had misters, water and ice at nearly every tee box on the course and we always have paramedics at the venue. The caddie in my group collapses from heat stroke/exhaustion on the fifteenth tee, a mile from the clubhouse. A spectator who was from Houston, but was not a doctor, knew exactly what to do and jumps right in and directs us to lay out the caddie with arms and legs spread and he takes the ice from the water cooler and puts it on the caddy’s head, neck, arms, abdomen and ankles in towels and shirts that people gave us. The paramedic gets to the scene in about ten minutes and said we had saved the caddie’s life. After the icing, and at the time the paramedics arrived, the caddie’s body temperature was still 106. The paramedics take the caddie to the hospital and by the next day he was fine and back on his feet.
Share the demand/supply factor for USGA Rules Officials regionally and nationally.
Golf is very lucky to have many volunteers and there are plenty of officials on the national scene. Some of the local associations are struggling and again I think this is a consequence of demographics.
On the rare occasion when I hit the ball in the fairway, I think it is a bit unfair to be penalized when the ball comes to rest in a divot. Any thoughts. I am obviously trolling here for a free drop.
Clearly you would fit right in with my Dad’s group. First the “Blue Blazer” answer: The two basic principles of the game are: (1) play the course as you find it and (2) play the ball as it lies. We can talk about fundamental fairness of the game and how the Ancients would approach it philosophically and we can even talk of morality, work ethic, the randomness of life and “why is the sea boiling hot and whether pigs have wings.” Instead of all that, I will propose to you what I propose to my Dad and his friends, and they never take me up on it: For today’s round I will agree that anytime you hit a perfect drive in the fairway and you find yourself in a divot, you may (without penalty) move it out of the divot and place in in a perfect lie; provided that every time you miss the fairway today and you have a great lie, you must push the ball down in the rough into a tangled difficult lie that you should have gotten because you missed the fairway. “Play on lads.”
Bonus Question:
Our older land locked courses are growing increasingly obsolete for the Tour players. We hear complaints about ball technology and club technology (chicken or the egg). At some point in time, something has to give. What are your thoughts? It was interesting how Merion Golf Club held up in the 2013 US Open (+1).
I do not have an issue with the equipment because the game is hard and the easier we make it for the non-expert the better. As for all the great venues becoming obsolete, that is a tempest in a teapot and only a worry for the “Blue Blazer” crowd that is fixated on par as a meaningful metric. Personally, I am not fixated on par for the expert player. I only care that the course plays the same for all competitors and the best player using his/her skills wins and all others had a fair chance. Let the pros shoot twenty under par. Why shouldn’t they? They are savants and wildly talented and so what if they navigate Merion or Oakmont or Cypress Point in scores that where unheard of fifty years ago. We drive cars, fly planes, perform surgery and drop bombs in ways that were unheard of fifty years ago. Why should golf be immune from progress and why spend resources trying to hold back the tide. Everyone has access to the same equipment. “Play on lads.”
Thank you Paul, I had a blast!
Thank you all for following Bad Golf Guy.
The back nine can only get better!
Another great article Jim.
Some great stuff from Paul and some great questions Jim!