Yet again another Tour player has been disqualified after TV viewers spotted a breach of the rules.
This time it’s Scotland’s Peter Whiteford who was just one shot off the lead early on the final day when he was advised he was being cruelly disqualified from the Avantha Masters and in an event won by pint-sized South African Jbe Kruger.
The 31-year old Whiteford had been standing over his approach shot a day earlier on the par five 18th fairway of the DLF course. He can be seen just slightly touching the surface with the heel of his wedge before taking his club away from the ball in looking ahead to the green.
While Whiteford was looking ahead at the green, and with his club in the air and also unbeknown to the Scot, his ball rolled albeit slightly to the right.
In fairness to the quitely spoken Scot he sought confirmation from his caddy, fellow competitor Jean Baptiste Gonnet along with a TV cameraman as to whether they had observed his ball moving.
All three indicated they had not seen Whiteford’s ball move and so he continued on to finish the hole and sign his scorecard for a level par 72.
Peter Whiteford is golf's latest victim of 'trial by video'. (Photo - Luke Walker/www.golffile.ie)
It left Whiteford just three shots from the lead going into the final round and well in position to claim a maiden Race to Dubai title.
But overnight several TV viewers contacted the European Tour website indicating Whiteford’s ball had in fact moved on the 18th hole.
This was reviewed by the Rules Committee who agreed with those views.
Chief Referee, John Paramour delivered Whiteford the bad news after he had bogeyed the third hole in today’s last round in New Delhi.
“I should have reviewed it,” he said.
“You can see the ball move when you look at it on TV. John spoke to me before I went out, so to be honest my head wasn’t in it from the first tee.
“I’m not cheating obviously. It’s one of those things, but it’s disappointing.”
Whiteford’s mistake was not to incur a penalty of one stroke and replace his ball.
As he did not do so, he was advised ahead of the final round he was disqualified for signing for a score lower than taken for failing to include the penalty he had incurred.
The Rules Committee considered the decision 33-7/4.5 which allows a committee in certain circumstances to modify the disqualification penalty and apply a penalty shot if the player had reasonably known he had incurred a penalty.
In hindsight, Whiteford should have contacted a member of the Avantha Masters rules team before signing his third round scorecard who then could have looked at TV footage and thus averting the disqualification penalty.
Once again this decision brings to light the sometimes bizarre nature of the Rules of Golf.
Whiteford was not cheating. He was not seeking to gain an advantage and he also went out of his way by speaking with his caddy, playing partner and cameraman to check to see if his ball had moved.
The decision to throw Whiteford out of the event immediately brings to mind ‘Harrington’s Rule’ after Padraig Harrington was convicted of ‘trial by video’ for an inadvertent breach during last year’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.
Golf’s ruling bodies later ammended that particular rule whereby a player can in circumstances not be disqualified hours after handing in his scorecard.
Then there was an incident in last fortnight’s Qatar Masters when Paul Lawrie’s ball slipped from his hand and onto his marker during the second round of the event in Doha.
Lawrie was not aware if his marker had moved but in checking with his playing partner and caddies he was informed they had not noticed any movement in the marker so Lawrie felt nothing more of it.
Don’t be surprised if there is now a groundswell of support in coming days for Whiteford.
