| By :
Grubb Young
Golf is really a genteel sport where the players are historically bound by the "honor system" for calling errors. Within the recently completed PGA tournament for 2010, the final golf main event for the year, was a player not being totally familiar with all of the course guidelines. That unfamiliarity with the rules led to a two stroke penalty. Dustin Johnson was assessed the two stroke penalty for "grounding" his club in a "sand trap" that wasn't an obvious sand trap. This penalty resulted in a great deal of back and forth and pro and con discussion across the sports media and web. Some folks take the position "The guidelines are the guidelines and he ought to have recognized better behavior." Others are "Enforcing this rule is really a cop-out by the PGA simply because they didn't wish to deal using the essential clean-up." Whatever individuals feel about the rule and also the enforcement of it, the two stroke penalty kept Johnson from a three way tie for initial location and a three- gap playoff after seventy-two holes of golf over the weekend. But even with that, the two stroke penalty Johnson received cost him a location in the playoff. This is most likely not the most heartbreaking ending to a main golf tournament. That "honor" most likely goes to Roberto De Vicenzo of Argentina who, at the end of the 1968 Masters Tournament, signed his scorecard without checking. His playing partner, Tommy Aaron, had inadvertently entered a 4 for the rating around the 17th gap instead of the 3 (birdie) that De Vicenzo had really scored. By signing the card using the higher rating, the rating stood and it cost De Vicenzo a tie and an 18- gap playoff the next day. De Vicenzo was later honored using the "Bob Jones Award" for distinguished sportsmanship for 1970. Now most times the pros aren't going to react the same way as Joe Weekend Duffer reacts. If Joe Weekend Duffer is assessed a two stroke penalty around the last gap of the nearby country club championship, or inadvertently signs his scorecard with a wrong rating on it, he is most likely to go home and destroy a couple of his clubs by pounding the garage door in frustration and anger. And maybe he tees up the automated garage door opener and sends it out of sight (or causes it to disintegrate on impact)! Of course, when he has calmed down and seen what he has done, he also now has to call his nearby garage door repairman to come out and repair the damaged garage door (and replace the automated garage door opener if that was also destroyed)! Then he has to call the nearby club pro and replace the clubs he destroyed. He might not admit how the clubs got destroyed though.
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