On Thursday, during the opening round of the HSBC Champions in Shangai, China, I noted that American Anthony Kim was in the field even though he had recently fallen off a horse, spraining his right ankle and bruising his jaw in the process. That he still managed to limp to the first tee box was a testament to his ... well, something.
Whatever, Kim won't have to concern himself with limping through four days of tournament golf; he's been disqualified for using an altered driver.
"I wasn't angry or anything, just walking down the fairway," Kim said. "The toe hit the sprinkler, hit the top of the sprinkler, and I looked at it and it looked a little bit different. But I wasn't sure and I put it in my bag."That's right, it's not like Kim was trying to cork his driver in an effort get a few more yards out of it, he unintentionally modified the club when he hit it with a sprinkler. And not only did it not help him hit the ball farther or straighter, it suddenly transformed him into a 30-handicap hacker.
At the eighth, he hit his first drive only 150 yards, and out of bounds. He then hit a second provisional shot - also poorly. He took a triple-bogey 8 on the hole and played two more before he found a rules official, who told him he must disqualify himself for playing with an altered club.
I rail on the archaic rules of golf at least once a year, and this seems like as good a time as any to dust off the old soapbox. I understand how altering a club might be to a golfer's advantage -- like, say, carrying u-grooved wedges or an 800 cc driver -- but when you're cracking drives 150 yards off the tee and O.B., I think it's safe to assume that the alterations did more harm than good.
In Kim's case, shouldn't the "8" he had to write on his scorecard be punishment enough? Does he also have to be DQ'ed? Apparently, yes. Yes, he does.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-09-2008 @ 5:48PM
Steve Pfeiffer said...
The rules of golf are in need of serious simplification. Throw the existing rule book away and start from scratch. The objective should be that the rules of golf should be easy to learn and use.
Even serious amateur and professional golfers cannot figure out the maze of golf rules. To the average golfer, the rules of golf are confusing: red stakes, yellow stakes, white stakes, lost ball, special rules for hazards - most golfers do not know how to take a drop.
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11-09-2008 @ 8:29PM
bugs said...
You can't change the rules in the middle of the game. Too many years of history, not to mention how it would change the sports' records. The rules of golf should be in every golfers' bag and followed to a tee. It also wouldn't hurt someone to read it once in a while, as I find most high and mid handicappers don't;
If you don't know the rules on a drop, you shouldn't be on the course.
11-09-2008 @ 9:56PM
mike said...
to me altering a club would be to gain some advantage, it seems that Kim damaged his club wasn't done intentally to gain advantage. If i'm hitting out of a sand trap lets say and hit a rock and take a chunk out of my club it is considered altered?. I would consider it damaged it was not intential therefore why would I have to DQ myself. dosen't make sense to me
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11-10-2008 @ 1:14PM
Kyle said...
My question is, what is the difference in what Tiger did at Augusta in 2007, where on the 13th hole, he wrapped his four iron around a tree, and what Anthony did here? In my opinion, it was more of a gain for Tiger to "alter" his club. We need a change in the rules of golf.
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11-11-2008 @ 6:27PM
Mark Edelinski said...
Altering a club accidently does not become an issue until you try to use it again. If Kim had just declared it at the time it happened and went to his 3 wood for the rest of the match he would have been OK. Safe then sorry.
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11-12-2008 @ 10:06AM
Ben Donatelli said...
60 yrs ago when I caddied at the local Country Club, a dog picked up a ball near the green and dropped it by the hole.
The golfer tapped it in for a birdie. Then , the members got into a violent arguement for the rest of the match. I learned how to cuss and the pro looked in a huge book of rules to solve the arguement. This happened on the first hole so they cussed for 17 holes. Really, is golf that important that one cusses at the Divinity?
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