Shivas this is pure poetry!
"George, It is a shame that the PGA didn't do a better job of training one of its members. It does make you wonder what other rules are ignored at this club. I'm glad the pro at my last club was not that lax.
The shame is that the Rules of Golf put a PGA member, a good man, in a position where he'd have to DQ a bunch of other good people because their actuarial skills aren't very good.
I wonder what happens when a card gets turned in with no signatures and another player says that the score on the card is lower than what the player made? There is no accountability there in my mind.
You don't see accountability because you see signature and accountability as synonymous. But you said it yourself -- a card got turned in. And it has a player's name on it. And it was given to the player at the start of the round. And there is only one of them. The player is accountable from the second he gets it. The fact that it got turned in IS the accoutability. It's like luggage at the airport - what do they say? Don't give it to strangers because you're accountable for it. Same principle. The signature adds nothing. It's just a gotcha trap.
Why even deal with score cards? Just have them tell you their total score at the end of the day? It sure is a headache to deal with all that paperwork. That would work. Verbal representations of fact are valid in multitudes of other situations and there is no reason that it could not work. Having a written record is better, but in a hypothetical country where all paper and writing instruments were outlawed, are you seriously telling me that the game of golf could not be played? That's ridiculous. Of course it could.
Any why have a marker? After all, it is distracting to have to keep track of someone elses score.
Great question. I'd love to know the answer. Golf is a game of honor. But we don't trust people to keep their own scores. That makes little sense to me.
I've yet to read one argument that comes even close to convincing me that it is in some way horrible to require a player put a mark somewhere on his card during the 4+ hours from when the cards are handed out until they are handed in to show that he at least looked at it once.
That's because nobody is arguing that it's horrible. All the argument does is say that mandatory DQ is a ridiculous penalty for a clerical error that has nothing to do with the game itself, and that there is a way to avoid that ridiculous result.
We give the players tremendous leeway in a lot of this. They can sign it anywhere. The marker can sign in the player's box and vice versa. It doesn't have to be a full signature. It can be an X for all we care. Just put a mark on the card that we can somehow interpret to mean that you saw the card.
John, the committee hands the card to the player before he tees off. Of course he saw the card. If you just take the position that you already take -- that the player is responsible for the card -- you already KNOW that he's seen the card as is responsible for the numbers on it. Again, the signature is unnecessary if you take the position that when that card comes in with the player's name on it and you handed it to him, he's responsible for whatever is on it -- like luggage at the airport.
Last Friday a group of four boys came off the 18th green and stood there discussing their scores and signed the cards. The scoring area was in a courtyard where I couldn't see them doing this. In the end, three boys went straight to their cars while the fourth one brought me the cards. They all had 2 signatures and all was well. If no signature is required, how do I know if anyone looked at their own card or not? How to do I even have a clue that anyone might agree with what is written on them?
Great example. This happens all the time. But take the position that each of these kids is responsible for his own card, and that if they're willing to hand it to someone to turn it in for them, it's their ass on the line if that guy changes a number or something, who cares if they signed it? Even with it signed, the kid turning them in could change a number as it is....again, the signature adds nothing."