Sometimes, honesty IS the best policy...
Monday, I had the opportunity to work for the newly-created Big 10 Network as a scorer at the Big 10/Pac-10 Golf Challenge at the Chambers Bay Golf Course just outside of Tacoma.
So you ask, what do you do when you're scoring a golf match?
Basically, you walk with the group you're assigned to, and keep track of each individual's score, then radio in the results of your group after every hole to the scoring coordinator that's tracking results in an office. Pretty simple, if you ask me.
The group that I was assigned to included Oregon freshman Jack Dukeminier going up against Minnesota sophomore Ben Pisani.
While walking with them, I couldn't help but admire how they were playing, especially in light of the fact that I've only been playing golf since 2005, and I've broken 100 for the first time last month!
As Pisani was getting ready to putt on the eighth hole, he suddenly called for an official to make a ruling. Seems that as he was addressing the ball, his ball moved ever so slightly, even though his putter never touched the ball.
After explaining the situation to the rules official, it was determined that since Pisani was in the address position, it counted as a stroke even though he never touched the ball with his putter; therefore he had to take a one-stroke penalty.
While Pisani was obviously disappointed with the decision, I had to give him a lot of credit for being up-front with his opponent and with the official on that matter. I know that in our informal games, we would have looked the other way.
As I heard later from a tournament official, "The golfers do a good job policing themselves".
Dukeminier finished in a tie for 10th place, while Pisani finished in a tie for 23rd.
So you ask, what do you do when you're scoring a golf match?
Basically, you walk with the group you're assigned to, and keep track of each individual's score, then radio in the results of your group after every hole to the scoring coordinator that's tracking results in an office. Pretty simple, if you ask me.
The group that I was assigned to included Oregon freshman Jack Dukeminier going up against Minnesota sophomore Ben Pisani.
While walking with them, I couldn't help but admire how they were playing, especially in light of the fact that I've only been playing golf since 2005, and I've broken 100 for the first time last month!
As Pisani was getting ready to putt on the eighth hole, he suddenly called for an official to make a ruling. Seems that as he was addressing the ball, his ball moved ever so slightly, even though his putter never touched the ball.
After explaining the situation to the rules official, it was determined that since Pisani was in the address position, it counted as a stroke even though he never touched the ball with his putter; therefore he had to take a one-stroke penalty.
While Pisani was obviously disappointed with the decision, I had to give him a lot of credit for being up-front with his opponent and with the official on that matter. I know that in our informal games, we would have looked the other way.
As I heard later from a tournament official, "The golfers do a good job policing themselves".
Dukeminier finished in a tie for 10th place, while Pisani finished in a tie for 23rd.
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