Golfer unfairly criticized for calling out a rules violation

A pro golfer has been unfairly criticised for calling out a rules violation. File this one under pros breaking the rules of golf they never knew about.

If you’re not across the rules controversy that saw two LPGA players penalized two strokes for giving advice then the summary is below. But if you’re not into the long read here is the TL;DR takeaway message:

Make sure you read rule 10.2 and understand what it means to give advice between players on the golf course.

If you read the rule, understand it and don’t violate it, you’re now more knowledgeable on the rules of golf than a few professional golfers were last week.

Here is the story.

Playing the LPGA Q-Series, an eight-tournament qualifying event to earn a card on the LPGA Tour, golfers Kendall Dye and Dewi Weber were playing the par-3 17th hole during the sixth round.

Dye had reportedly been given information by the caddie of the third player in the group on what club had been used. Dye then held up three fingers to Weber’s caddie to convey that the golfer had played a 3-iron; violating rule 10.2 prohibiting giving advice between golfers or another golfers’ caddie.

The whole thing then got out of hand for two reasons.

Firstly, Christina Kim noticed the rules violation and told Golf Digest that she immediately mentioned it to an official:

“I said, ‘I think I saw an infraction,’ ” Kim told Golf Digest in a phone interview on Monday. “I said, ‘Is this allowed?’ and made a motion. I was not exactly given a clear answer of yes or no.

“Given that we were chasing daylight, I wasn’t going to [carry on]. I was 99.99 percent sure it was a violation. [The official] asked if I wanted to handle it now or later, and I said we’ll handle it after the round. That was my choice, because I needed to make sure from this individual that it was a violation. I didn’t receive any confirmation that it wasn’t.”

Before the news broke, Kim went on Twitter to cryptically hint at the rules infraction had occurred but it wasn’t clear when it had happened.

Remarkably, and controversially, Kim has been defending her actions (by protecting the field) after being vilified for calling out the rules violation as well as waiting until after the round to do so.

And secondly, it appears that not only did Dye not realise that offering advice was in violation of the rules of golf, she claims to have seen it done “thousands of times”.

If you want to read more, Brian Wacker at Golf Digest has a great follow up story quoting Christina Kim, Jessica Marksbury at Golf.com penned a piece on Kim’s fear of losing a friend because of the incident and Geoff Shackelford perfectly sums up the incident in his usual acerbic, concise manner.

Know your rules people. Know your rules.

And don’t get shirty if you don’t and you’re called out for it.

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