Minnesota Golfer - Summer 2015 - 34

(punch shots
)
InsidetheMGA
The Importance of Integrity in Sports
By Tom Ryan
T
hree seemingly unrelated events in
the world of sport recently caught
my eye.
First, there was the Golf Channel's
Morning Drive's reaction to an improper
drop by Aaron Baddeley at the Players
Championship; second, a Wall Street
Journal article on an initiative by the
USGA and R&A to unify the disparate
handicap systems into a single set of
rules and procedures; and finally, the
Deflategate report by the NFL, and the
reaction by many in the media to the seriousness
of the findings and the penalties
imposed on Tom Brady and the New
England Patriots.
thing out of the ordinary happens to
your ball between the time you tee it up
and the time you hole it.
Many of the calls to simplify the
Rules, in essence, are calls to make them
less black and white and more arbitrary.
But to do so would introduce a matter of
degree to many situations, such as how
much your ball can move as you address
it before it's not OK; where you can drop
from before it's not OK; or in Baddeley's
case, how you drop.
The other argument for simplification
is that it's allegedly an impediment
to people taking up the game. All of my
friends who play-whether they have a
We police ourselves and expect
our fellow competitors to do the
same. It's about honor, integrity
and what you do when others
aren't looking. It's what makes golf
the greatest game.
Baddeley was assessed a penalty when
he casually dropped a ball from less than
shoulder height. I don't know whether he
was upset with the penalty or acknowledged
he was wrong, but I do know the
pundits on Golf Channel's Morning Drive
program took the opportunity to criticize
the Rules of Golf as generally being " silly "
and, on the whole, too complex.
I understand it's easy to characterize
the Rules this way, but it often stems
from a lack of knowledge of the overall
context of the Rules, a lack of accountability
or both. The Rules standardize
the procedure of what to do when some32
MINNESOTAGOLFER
Summer 2015
handicap or not-are
interested in the Rules
and want to play the
game as it was meant
to be played. I think
most golfers think
the same way.
The WSJ article
describes
how the USGA
and R&A are
working with
other handicap
systems to create
a global handicap
system, where one set of rules will determine
which scores should be posted,
how equitable stroke control is applied
and even how weather conditions may
impact your scores. It's about consistency
and bringing the golf world together.
This initiative is in conjunction with
an effort by the USGA to make the Rules
of Golf " shorter, simpler and less legalistic "
according to John Bodenhammer,
the USGA's senior director of rules and
competitions. This isn't intended to
change underlying principles, but to use
technology and education principles to
make the Rules more easily understood.
Which brings us to Deflategate.
Is
there a better example to highlight the
elegance of the Rules of Golf and the
integrity of the handicap system? I was
surprised to hear the Deflategate debate
didn't focus on the question of a rule being
broken or the validity of the rule itself,
but rather on cheating-specifically
to what level of cheating this rose to.
Comparisons were made to crowd noise
being pumped into stadiums, offensive
linemen spraying their jerseys with silicone
and wide receivers putting Stickum
on their hands. It is clear that cheating is,
in fact, expected in the NFL and, at some
level, accepted.
It's discussions like this that continually
enhance the Rules of Golf and the
handicap system. The Rules can't be
gray, or a question of degree.
We police ourselves and
expect our fellow competitors
to do the same.
It's about honor, integrity
and what you do
when others aren't
looking.
It's
what
makes golf the greatest
game.
See you on the course.
www.mngolf.org
http://www.mngolf.org
Minnesota Golfer - Summer 2015

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