By now, quite a few fans of televised golf are aware that Tiger Woods was penalized two strokes after his 2nd round at the BMW Championship. While television cameras were zooming in on his ball, Tiger removed some loose impediment near the ball. Clearly the ball moved oh so slightly as he attempted to move a twig. A moving ball unqestionably warrants a two stoke penalty. I have no problem with a penalty being assessed for a ball moving. No, my beef is the unfairness of televised golf.
In this case the movement was almost so imperceptible that it literally took a slow-motion tv camera to detect the movement. Over the past dozen or so years, the only people who show up on televised golf events are the leaders of a tournament or someone who executes a particulary great shot or Tiger Woods. His shots are under almost constant scrutiny unlike most other golfers (with the possible exception of Phil Mickelson) who rarely make it to the ‘must-see’ level.
So, in fairness, unless all golfers come under the same level of televised attention as Tiger does, then no one should ever have a penalty assessed after the fact based on either a video review or even a television viewer calling in to point out an infraction witnessed in the comfort of their living room.
Assuming that professional golfers ‘police’ themselves to the best of their ability, then that is good enough for me. Once the next shot has been played, the previous shot stands unless the golfer calls himself to task. Mistakes will be made since we are all human and , yes , they sometimes will show up on a video replay, but, that is merely part of the human aspect of golf or any sport for that matter.
Not Fair…This is the one occasion where I actually think calling in penalties from an outside source is unacceptable. You are correct… Tiger gets the brunt of it. If they are going to focus on all players balls ok, I would accept that. The topical view that Tiger had compared to a surface level high digital camera from an outside source is truly taking something away from the game. We love to compare the players of today to the players of yesteryear. Now with this element of penalties being called in from an outside agency …the comparisons are ridiculous. On one end we speak golf being the only game where you call a penalty on yourself. But not anymore. Its the only game where a spectator known or unknown can influence the outcome by calling a penalty on the player they choose to watch like Hawk!