Preferred Lies: Don’t be an idiot
It is always a useful exercise to learn from the best. When it comes to golf, it is wise to learn from the professionals, and in this particular case, learn from their mistakes. All 26 of them.
Japanese golfer, Ryuji Imada plays on the PGA Tour where the rules allow a one club length placement of the ball on the fairway when preferred lies are in place. On the weekend he was playing in a pro-celebrity tournament in China under Asian Tour rules where you are only allowed to place the ball within the length of one scorecard.
He had been playing under the PGa Tour rules before his playing partner Danny Lee pointed out the error on the 12th hole. Imada calculated he had broken the rules around 13 times and was given 13 two-shot penalties; 26 in total. At the end of the round he finished 24-over, 26 shots off the lead.
Imada mentioned after his round that he had failed to read the local rules sheet and summed up the situation, “I”m an idiot”.
Don’t be an idiot. Read the local rules.
More rules of golf
Can I practice my putting during my round?
The sprinkler head
What this shows is that 350 years of adding rules on top of rules is just making the game unwieldy. One set of rules here, another there.
Streamline the rules, outline them in plain English, and make them standard everywhere.
It’s difficult for me to grasp that an advert sign is too important to move, (Monty’s penalty) and one club length or scorecard width is not standard everywhere. Or piles of sand placed for no other reason than aesthetics 30 yards off a fairway are considered “bunkers”.
Let’s forget the tradition and get all of golf moving in a positive direction.
I don’t think expecting the players to know the rules, especially a local rule they can read on a sheet (or their caddie can), is too much to ask.