Golf Rules: The top 5 issues the USGA still needs to fix

Golf, both the professional and amateur versions, still have some nutty rules that need to be addressed. Here are the top five golf rules the USGA needs to fix.

I’m excited about the golf rules changes that took effect at the start of this year. If any sport suffers from a preponderance of dumb rules, it’s golf. Though, admittedly, I know nothing about cricket, so I guess I can’t rule everything out.

So, as long as the USGA is undergoing some positive therapy sessions, I’d like to submit a couple more changes they should adopt. My approach is focused on injecting more common sense into the game. Doing so will speed play, cut down on disputes, and maybe save a couple of friendships along the way. And really, isn’t that what we all want out of this great game?

Let’s start with a simple one that has lasted far too long in the books.

Some will tell you the 1968 Masters is a sort of Aesop’s Fable to teach golfers about the importance of finishing a task, paying attention to details, and playing by the rules.

What a load.

Three men had their lives irretrievably damaged in an epic display of bullheadedness by the USGA, PGA, and Bobby Jones because we couldn’t recognize an honest mistake.

Roberto De Vicenzo is most remembered for something we’ve all done: miss an incorrect score on a card. In fact, his “scoring violation” didn’t even benefit him.

De Vicenzo had won the 1967 Open at Royal Liverpool the previous year. That’s a big deal in professional golf.

Two major victories vault you into the company of legends like Bernhard Langer, Tony Jacklin, Johnny Miller, Ben Crenshaw, and Greg Norman.

A single major win puts you at the Y.E. Yang, Ben Curtis, Gay Brewer, and Rich Beem table. It’s in the back of the room, trust me.

Roberto would have captured two majors in successive years, launching his PGA career into the stratosphere. Instead, he had just one more PGA tour win…ever. It’s hard to think there wasn’t a connection.

Tommy Aaron is still best remembered for his incorrect recording of De Vicenzo’s 17th hole birdie. In some respect, it’s worse than signing a wrong card. Aaron made the mistake, De Vicenzo just failed to catch it.

I can’t imagine the guilt Aaron is still carrying around at age 81. How do you think he felt when he donned the green jacket in 1973? You know he was thinking about his friend Roberto.

And let’s not forget Bob Goalby. He was the beneficiary of the screw-up. What a horrible way to win. Of course, had the score been correct, he and De Vicenzo would have moved to a playoff. Goalby might have won it anyway. But we’ll never know. His lone major victory is forever tainted with an asterisk.

All this could have been avoided if they’d just fixed the mistake when they found it. The ruling by Bobby Jones could have gone down as the most magnanimous – and correct – decision in golfing history. Golf would have been forever changed from that moment and electronic scoring probably would have been adopted because of it.

Alas, Bobby Jones was a bit of a cantankerous Luddite who thought his reputation would be impugned if he inserted a modicum of common sense into his own tournament.

Congratulations, Bobby. This farce did help cement your reputation. You were a great golfer, but a first-class crank on this issue. You allowed a comedy of errors to forever taint the legacies of three good men.

We are now 50 years past that moment. I’m pretty sure they can figure out the technology. For God’s sake, my vacuum has the technology! Let’s abolish this anachronism and call it the Roberto Rule so players in the future can be saved from his fate, putting a positive spin on his tragic loss.