Tim,
Agreed with lower status tournaments where there aren't signboys, electronic scoreboards, and automatic updates. In cases like this turning in and signing a card is very useful and serves a good purpose.
In the case of the big money tours, if a player turns in a card and it matches what the official scorers have, why is that not good enough? They sat at the same table, she told them it was her card, she handed it to them, they all agreed. Don't think there is much confusion there at this point. They looked at it and sure enough it matched whats on thier scoring sheet. So a DQ because she doesn't sign it, and takes a step out of the tent?
After so many checks and balances....a DQ cause she was thinking about the chicken enchilidas she was about to rip into for dinner? A DQ with so much money on the line? A DQ because Gandalf the Grey drew a line in the sand.
This breaks pretty much every notion of spirit of the game that I ever felt about golf. She returned to sign the card, she didn't leave without doing this, she got the job done, and she did the right thing. Yet there is a magical vortex on the outside of the thent where she is transformed into another person, and therefore invalidating what she did on the last 5 hours on the course?
And does a DQ really fit the crime here?? Seriously, does it really fit the crime? A player hits a ball out of frustration while its still moving because it won't stay on a green, say at Pinehurst, and the guy breaks the spirit of the rules of golf in quite possibily the worst way, and all he gets is a two stroke penalty? Yet in a different case the round is over, you stand up and put your big toe over a line in the sand and your DQ'd?
I still say what the hell is that?