A little more than a week ago, Colorado State won the Del Walker hosted by Long Beach State. It was the Rams’ third consecutive victory at this event. After looking at the scores, I was reminded of something that has always puzzled me with college golf.
This event used a different format. Each team played six players, with the five best scores counting. This is legal and counts as an official event.
How can this be? If teams were to play 6-count-5 all season long, we would see different results and certainly have different rankings. I have said for two years now that match play is even worse than using one more player and counting one more score. When you play team match play, you have an entirely different style of play, and the rankings, which are used to get into the postseason, would be drastically different if match play were the preferred format of play.
And then there's this: While the 6-count-5 format is allowed on the men’s side, it’s not permissible on the women’s side. The Big Ten Women’s Championship and a few select tournaments during the season use this format. However, the NCAA Women’s Committee made the decision years ago that it would not allow this format to be counted toward official results. Therefore, before the start of the event, the coach must designate a player to be the non-counter when the scores are submitted. That is why you will often see a different winner on the scoreboard at the event and a different winner in the official results.
All of this brings me to this: College golf has the power to allow these sort of format changes and to think that it makes sense in the big picture when it clearly does not.
Why stop there? A few weeks ago, Ohio State sophomore Allie White was disqualified after she signed an incorrect scorecard. In my opinion, the punishment clearly did not fit the crime. Why can’t the correct score be figured and add a two-stroke penalty? There are many other things in college golf where the rules of golf have been tweaked to fit college golf’s ways.
Bottom line: You won’t turn on the television this weekend and see the football game with Vanderbilt and Florida playing five quarters. You won’t see Oregon and Stanford playing 8-on-8. The same with basketball this winter or baseball or softball next spring. And for sure you won’t see the NCAA championships in these sports change.
Picture this . . . Welcome to the Final Four, where tonight’s semifinal games will be a series of one-on-one matchups to determine who will meet in the national championship Monday night.
Comments
BobTatFORE (anonymous) says...
To paraphrase ESPN, c'm on Lance! I expect a Golfweek columnist to know the difference between a Condition of Competition and a Rule of Golf. The "play six, count five" is an example of the former, while being disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard is clearly a violation of "The Rules of Golf." You may not like either but don't confuse the two issues.
November 10, 2009 at 4:01 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Lance_Ringler (anonymous) says...
I don't mean to confuse the two. Simply saying college golf has shown it has the power to tweak the rules and do things a little different at times.
Prior to this year, women's coaches were not allowed on the greens or in the bunkers. However, if they violated that "college" rule there was no penalty?
I understand changing the penalty for a rule would be ignoring a "Rules of Golf" rule, but is that forbidden territory?
In college golf, there is a misconduct penalty. Is that listed anywhere in the "Rules of Golf" as being a violation?
My point is simply this: A player who gets a DQ for signing an incorrect scorecard is too harsh. Imagine if one player did this and another player step in a hole, sprained his/her ankle and now all of a sudden the team is DQ. Ouch!
We have seen/heard of situations or problems with the rangefinders and the penalty was not always properly handled under USGA guidelines.
I hope that helped and I am certainly not trying to confuse the two.
November 11, 2009 at 12:44 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
rbecgolf (anonymous) says...
My daughter played an AJGA event in which she was two shots off the lead after the first round. While examining her card the tournament director got sidetracked by a rules issue on the course and so he did not return her card to her to be signed. She left the scoring tent and we get a call at lunch that she had been disqualified. He took the card away from her and did not return it and she gets disqualified. I agree with you Lance, there needs to be some changes made. http://www.aboutjuniorgolf.com
November 16, 2009 at 1:07 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Lance_Ringler (anonymous) says...
I am not saying I have a perfect way to solve an issue like this. What I am saying is the punishment does not fit the crime for an incorrect scorecard.
November 17, 2009 at 11:29 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
kate93 (anonymous) says...
Lance and rbecgolf, With all due respect, there isn't anything broken with Rule 6-6. It simply says that the player should check the score for each hole, and must ensure that the marker or markers have signed the scorecard, sign the score card himself and return it to the Committee as soon as possible.
rebecgolf - let me give you a scenario. Your daughter completes a tournament and is two strokes behind the winner. It's then discovered just before the trophies are given out, that the winner hadn't signed her scorecard. The Committee decides that it was their fault, go against USGA Rules and assess the girl a two-stroke penalty. My guess is that you aren't helping your daughter get ready for a play-off but rather having a pretty frank discussion with the Committee.
Simply put it is the player's responsibilty and it is one of the small things that makes golf so great.
November 18, 2009 at 10:42 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )