Adam Blyth gets disqualified for quoting a wrong score
Honesty has it’ virtues, but what did Adam Blyth got in return of telling the whole truth? He got himself disqualified.
The player, who hails from Australia, got himself disqualified after the final of the Asian Tour's Iskandar Johor Open.
Blyth finished tied for the 50th spot at the Horizon Hills Golf and Country Club in Johor, Malaysia, and banked US$5,250 as prize money.
However, on his way back home from Johor, he reckoned that he had signed for a lower score. The Aussie instantly rang the officials and told them about the incident. In result of this action, 28-year-old was disqualified from the tournament, which was won
the Irishman, Padraig Harrington.
The Aussie scored a 73, but mistakenly recorded a 72 on his scorecard. He told this to the press. He said, "I looked at www.asiantour.com on Monday morning at the airport and saw that I was as two under which I wasn't. I was hoping it was a mistake as I
had a 73 and immediately rang up the office”.
The golfer accepted his fault and called the Asian Tour’s office. He said, he could have hid it, but then his conscience would not have accepted the deceit.
Adam needed the prize money for the Order of Merit, but he had to deny the unnecessary favour for the reverence of golf.
He further added that the misunderstanding took place at the second hole where he had a triple bogey six, but signed for a five. He said, "I knew I had a six. I was hoping it was a computer error and that the card was okay but it wasn't. It's the first time
I've been disqualified".
The golf fraternity praised the player for his noble action. One of the people to applaud Blyth was the Asian Tour Tournament Director, Jittisak Tamprasert. He said that what Adam did was a superb gesture of honouring the code and conduct of golf, as that
was the basic crux of being a golfer. He further added that he saluted the way Adam managed the whole scenario. It demonstrated his true character.
According to the rules and regulations regarding returning the score, if a player returned the score for any score lower than the actual, a penalty of disqualification is imposed on him. This is what happened with the player, who is ranked 38th
on the Asian Tour's Order of Merit.
What did the Aussie got in return of such a pious act? At times golf seems like a box of penalties, one for each thing. There is a penalty for grounding the sand bunker, for reaching late in the pro-am session, for losing the ball and many more.
This was not the first time a player got punished rather than getting rewarded for disclosing the reality. Earlier, John Sendon was a given a penalty for disclosing the fact that he did not mark his ball before starting the tournament and took a shot at
some other ball. He was given a bogey for his scorecard.
Then Dustin Johnson was kicked out of the playoffs at USPGA championship, when he was found grounding his clubs on the sand bunker. The player was awarded a bogey for his honesty. A week later, the winner of the Fed Ex Cup was disqualified from the Barclays,
as he failed to wake up on time for his pro-am session.
This is it for the news that says that Adam Blyth, an Australian golfer was disqualified on Monday for returning a score, which he mistakenly recorded on his scorecard. The player was praised for his integrity, but was punished for his nobility.
Golf has been a sport since a century. Rules have been devised and few have been abolished, it is time that the officials should think of rewarding the players, rather than punishing them for something good.
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