One question I ask is the 2 shot penalty rule for signing to an innaccurate card a good rule?
Yes. Heck, part of me still thinks it should still be a DQ. Follow the damn rules, whatever they are at the time you play. It's your repsonsibility as a player.
A second question I ask is should the use of tv be applied consistently and equally to all players?
It's not possible.
That is, should all shots be recorded using the same technology and reviewed by tour officials or should the random method used currently continue? Or, should tv not be used at all? It is quite clear what I think.
a) It's not random now.
b) As I previously said somewhere (possibly not here), even if you assigned one cameraman to every player, they
still couldn't do it "equally" because they'd have different angles from different parts of the golf course. A tree might block them one time, or a gallery, or the caddie might put the bag in the way for one player on the 12th hole, or the camera men all choose to stand in different places.
You, Sean, are barking up the wrong tree. You're focused on this "equality" thing, but it doesn't matter, because it's simply too impractical to mandate. It's not "equal" that some players play in the morning and others play in the afternoon. It's not "equal" that players get different playing partners. It's not "equal" that the popular players have larger galleries that can deflect or spot balls.
Finally, I ask should cards be signed at the end of each round when it isn't clear if the signature has any value if random scrutinization of the round(s) continues for the length of the tournament? It seems to me that players are being set-up to fail for the sake of signing a card without a clear reason to do so.
It has value. It's the player's affirmation that their score is correct and that they've followed the rules in place at the time. It allows the tournament committee to make cuts, assign groupings, and conduct the tournament. These reasons are pretty clear.
I contend that the rules are that complicated that it would be highly unusual for players to know all the rules for all situations, tournaments, tours and golf associations.
Lexi knows you're supposed to put the ball back on the spot. And rules officials are out there to assist and inform. I know the rules and I'm not in line to make a few hundred thousand bucks each week… why can't they?
What has slowly been happening is that more and more players refuse to take drops etc without advice from an official probably as much these days to avoid penalties as controversy.
I agree with you on this, but if they take a proper drop, they can never be penalized.
I have a theory on why cards are signed after each round...could be miles off base though. I think traditonally the signing of the card was about the clerical aspect of golf. A quick review of the scores, marker and player agree, add the total...then sign the card. I don't believe the process was intended to withstand scrutiny over 72 holes. Once the card was signed the deal was closed unless somebody piped up in damn hurry that something was inaccurate. Or if the player later thought about what transcribed (likely after some coaching/discussion with other people) they could call a penalty on themselves and essentially DQ themselves. Does anybody know of an incident pre tv where somebody other than the player called a penalty the next day which resulted in a DQ?
Two quick things… first of all, as you probably know, the player isn't responsible for the addition.
To the bigger point… I think it's important to remember that the Rules of Golf apply to all levels of play, not just the PGA or LPGA Tour. Imagine a situation where a player says to another "Yeah, I hit it in the water on 16 yesterday, took my two clublengths, and saved bogey." The other player says "Isn't the hazard on 16 yellow?" and the first player looks into it and ultimately calls it on herself.
Or a player sees another player dropping on the 18th hole in a club championship while he plays the parallel 12th hole. He assumes the player took an unplayable. The next day someone complains about how the guy he was playing with made a birdie on the 18th… and it was that guy. He informs the other player that he saw him dropping and not near a cart path, flower bed, etc. It comes to be known that the guy cheated.
There are plenty of situations one can imagine where information comes to light later on without the aid of TV, and the scorecard is rendered incorrect, and the penalty is as it should be - stiffer than just the original penalty with nothing added. IMO, of course.
Nicklaus went so far as to hover his club in the rough lest the ball move slightly just from addressing it.
I don't think it's asking too much for the modern pros, who have so much to gain by playing the game, that they know and follow the rules, and take that responsibility seriously.