Good for Robby Ware

[JESII]

I’m happy to see the Tour rules guys hold strong to reason...not always the case it seems.

[JMEvensky]

I’m happy to see the Tour rules guys hold strong to reason...not always the case it seems.

What happened? And to whom?

[JMEvensky]

Just read about it. I agree but wonder what would have happened if the video had been less conclusive.

[Steve Kline]

I couldn't even get through the whole seven minutes. I thought Kuchar's ball bounced at least twice if not three times. And, he was trying to claim his ball became embedded on the second of third bounce in an old pitch mark. Really? Good thing I wasn't the rules official. Because I most likely would have said something inappropriate.

[SL_Solow]

Claimed he had enlarged an old pitchmark thus creating a new one.  To get relief one must be embedded in own pitchmark.  More than dubious.

[Steve Lapper]

Claimed he had enlarged an old pitchmark thus creating a new one.  To get relief one must be embedded in own pitchmark.  More than dubious.

Shel,


 The word "dubious" fits Matt Kuchar to a tee (sic). While his game and playing talent is undeniably superb, and he's certainly one of the Tour's steadiest players, his personal values, intelligence, and projected image are indeed "dubious."


Having been a first (second and third) hand witness to a spectrum of Kuchar's rakish off-course behavior, his pearly white, effervescent smile is little more than a facade for a man who believes he is fully entitled to treat others (and their gracious hospitality) like crap. He is, in short, a world-class ass and his image contrived and fake.


I'm glad the press, and now the real-time cameras, are finally revealing the man's character.

[Tim Martin]

Claimed he had enlarged an old pitchmark thus creating a new one.  To get relief one must be embedded in own pitchmark.  More than dubious.

Shel,


 The word "dubious" fits Matt Kuchar to a tee (sic). While his game and playing talent is undeniably superb, and he's certainly one of the Tour's steadiest players, his personal values, intelligence, and projected image are indeed "dubious."


Having been a first (second and third) hand witness to a spectrum of Kuchar's rakish off-course behavior, his pearly white, effervescent smile is little more than a facade for a man who believes he is fully entitled to treat others (and their gracious hospitality) like crap. He is, in short, a world-class ass and his image contrived and fake.


I'm glad the press, and now the real-time cameras, are revealing the man's character.

The acorn didn’t fall from the tree as the dad was unbearable when he was on the bag at the Masters as a result of Kuchar winning the U.S. Amateur.

[Don Mahaffey]

I don’t know anything about this incident, but Robby lives in Houston and is a regular visitor to the Memorial Park project, both in his official capacity as a tour official, and as a long time MP golfer. He is a great guy who is very refreshingly candid about tour set ups. 

[JMEvensky]

I don’t know anything about this incident, but Robby lives in Houston and is a regular visitor to the Memorial Park project, both in his official capacity as a tour official, and as a long time MP golfer. He is a great guy who is very refreshingly candid about tour set ups.

Agree RW is a good guy. His brother in law is a friend.

[JESII]

Certainly came across well as I watched last night...


All too often I've felt the tour officials bend backwards to help the players to the edge of the line. As a result the players have taken the stance of asking for the most egregious interpretation of a rule and let the official walk them back to the very line. Drops from obstructions being the brightest example in my memory.


On this deal, the two officials were stuck between laughing at Kuchar and barking at him to play his freaking ball...

[Peter Pallotta]

See, this is bad for me. It's bad because when it comes to golf I get my knickers in a twist so easily and then feel the need to stand on principle, eg I haven't been able to let myself buy/play any Callaway club ever since they brazenly tried to usurp the rules with the ERC driver; and now, worse, because of this Kuchar character, I won't be able to play anything by Bridgestone either! Not its clubs nor its balls nor its woods -- and it's too bad, because they make some nice looking stuff. Please don't anyone tell me anything negative about Titleist or one of the tour staff, or I'll be forced to stick with nothing but Hogans (from when Mr H was still in charge) for the rest of my life -- no good, only because those irons are hard to hit for a hack like me (no weight/heft at all from the centre of the face to the toe...)
Matt has no idea what a pain in the butt he's become

[JMEvensky]

You'll have to toss your Sketchers too.

[Tom_Doak]

I don’t know anything about this incident, but Robby lives in Houston and is a regular visitor to the Memorial Park project, both in his official capacity as a tour official, and as a long time MP golfer. He is a great guy who is very refreshingly candid about tour set ups.

Seconded!  I have not spent a lot of time with Robby but I could not imagine him handling this in any other way:  holding to principles while trying to avoid making the player look bad.  He just needed a little more help from the player in the latter. 


As to Jim Sullivan's comment about helping players to the edge of the line, and the players asking for the most egregious interpretation of a rule, that's been happening since they started playing for real money:  cf. Jack Nicklaus, World Match Play at Wentworth, late 1960's.  Ballesteros was notorious for it, too; I believe I heard that Gary Player taught him to do it that way.


But the difference between Seve and Matt Kuchar was that when Seve would lose his argument, he'd just shake it off and dig the ball out of the pitch mark and make his par anyway.

[John Kavanaugh]

The Skechire Cat made par also.

[JESII]

He did...


The comparison to Seve is that this is the glaring weakness in Seve's reputation. We can smile about an all-time great skirting the edge (or beyond) but that's his reputation in this segment of the conversation...which is regrettable I'd think.


Until Skechire wins 5 or 6 majors, this will be the headline as opposed to the small print.

[Tom_Doak]

The Skechire Cat made par also.

So it was all much ado about nothing, and just a lot of unnecessary bad p.r.?

[Tom_Doak]

The comparison to Seve is that this is the glaring weakness in Seve's reputation. We can smile about an all-time great skirting the edge (or beyond) but that's his reputation in this segment of the conversation...which is regrettable I'd think.

True.  And it's also true that the referees today are more lenient as a whole, because they don't want to cause controversies like this, because everyone is mic'd now and it's always on cable somewhere . . . which leads more players to want to take advantage, instead of letting the other guy get an upper hand.


At least some of the stories about Seve are funny.  Mike Clayton's story about Seve and Tony Johnstone is an all time classic, as was the day that Seve wanted a drop in the trees on the 10th at Augusta, and they sent Michael Bonallack over to give a second opinion.

[Doug_Feeney]

The truly bizarre thing about all of this is that the ball actually did come to rest in Kuchar's pitch mark!  If you watch the video of the shot land, it hit soft, jumped back slightly, and bounced forward into the original pitch mark.  The walking commentator who said it hit and rolled/bounced forward some distance was just wrong.


Kuch arguing for the ball embedding after a knee-high bounce was just embarrassing.  Not a good look for a guy who could use one right now.

[jeffwarne]

Certainly came across well as I watched last night...


All too often I've felt the tour officials bend backwards to help the players to the edge of the line. As a result the players have taken the stance of asking for the most egregious interpretation of a rule and let the official walk them back to the very line. Drops from obstructions being the brightest example in my memory.


On this deal, the two officials were stuck between laughing at Kuchar and barking at him to play his freaking ball...

Nick Faldo said it best-you get three minutes to find your ball, and shouldn't get 7 to argue your case....
Not a good visual for Kuchar....again

[Kalen Braley]

Anyone have the actual video?  All I found was clickbait links but no actual video of the incident...

[Sean_A]

Sometimes I think folks around here only watch golf so they can catch these rules debacles/controversies.  Its a bit like crashes in car racing and fighting in hockey in spose.

Ciao

[Kalen Braley]

Sean,


I don't see what's so bad with a good controversy every now and then!!

Where is Shivas when you need him! 


https://www.hockeyfights.com/

[jeffwarne]

Sometimes I think folks around here only watch golf so they can catch these rules debacles/controversies.  Its a bit like crashes in car racing and fighting in hockey in spose.

Ciao

No, we just watch golf-wasn't a controversy, would've preferred for them to show something else

[Peter Flory]

I can't say that I've ever seen a ball end up in someone else's pitch mark off the green.  Pretty bad luck.  It can only happen in unusually wet conditions and when it's like that, your ball usually plugs in its own pitch mark. 


This argument reminds me of the Bubba one where he was arguing that arts should be considered burrowing animals because they burrow. 

[Lou_Duran]

The truly bizarre thing about all of this is that the ball actually did come to rest in Kuchar's pitch mark!  If you watch the video of the shot land, it hit soft, jumped back slightly, and bounced forward into the original pitch mark.  The walking commentator who said it hit and rolled/bounced forward some distance was just wrong.


Kuch arguing for the ball embedding after a knee-high bounce was just embarrassing.  Not a good look for a guy who could use one right now.

If this is true, then Kuch should have been allowed relief.  There is even an interpretation (16.3a(2)) which fits the scenario above.


As to his character, I know people who would paint a completely different picture of the guy.  If asking for a break is a character flaw, not many of us would be held in good standing.