Finally: some Rules Officials with good sense on Wie DQ
Some of you are sick of the whole Michelle Wie disqualification, I know. I promise this is my last post — after this, I’m done. I think we can put the issue to bed now, after we’ve finally had a Rules Official speaking publicly and critically about the disqualification.
The Royal & Ancient, the oldest rules governing body in golf, seems to be indicating that it would have handled things differently. And the R&A places most of the blame for the whole fiasco on SI Reporter Michael Bamberger (aka the guy in the pink shirt).
R&A Assistant Secretary of Rules Grant Moir stated, “We feel very strongly that Michelle should not be hung out to dry over this….What Michelle did was not intentional and not a serious breach of the rules. Michelle thought she knew what she was doing and went ahead with the drop on her own. At her first attempt, she thought she had dropped closer and so she dropped again, which tells its own story as to how she was attempting to get it right.”
“If Bamberger had done the right thing in reporting the incident before Michelle had signed her card that day, she would have been given the appropriate penalty of two shots and there would have been no mention of disqualification. If he felt at the time that he had witnessed a breach and was sufficiently sure of himself to raise it, he should have found an official at once. He should have known just how serious it would be for Michelle if he hung on to the information until the following day.”
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