Frustrated Ian Poulter tweets about golf rules
World number 12, Ian Poulter, believes its time that the R&A (Royal and Ancient Golf Club), the governing body for golf outside US and Mexico, brings amendments in the rules.
He tweeted, “Rules of Golf Book, Rule 22-4, Paragraph 3, Line 7 - the rules of golf are complete b****cks and are stuck back in 1932".
Several disqualifications have taken place in the past one year. It started with Dustin Johnson and eventually affected Padraig Harrington.
The Dubliner was disqualified from Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship on a complaint made by a television viewer. According to the complaint, Harrington moved the ball from his ball marker before putting on the seventh green and signed for a 65.
The flamboyant Englishman protested against the rules and said, "It's about time they readdress some of those rules to see if it actually makes this game stay the great game it is, because it does look silly. There's no common sense involved with a number
of the rules, so that needs to be addressed, and even Jack Nicklaus said it last week".
Jack Nicklaus made a statement earlier this week that the entire book of rules should be altered to make the game simpler and easy to understand.
He said that in response to the disqualification of Camilo Villegas from the Hyundai Tournament of Champions.
Both Poulter and Nicklaus posed that rather than disqualifications, the players should have been penalized for certain strokes.
United States Golf Association and R&A has responded to the protest and has confirmed to make amendments.
Apart from putting up a request for alternation in the rules, Poulter asked the authorities to write down the rules for each tournament so that everyone would have a fair idea of what is expected of them.
As a result of this request, Andy McFee, the referee, who disqualified Harrington, clarified the rules before the start of the 1.7 million Euros Volvo Golf Champions.
He stated that the Royal Golf Club had no bunkers, but all the sand areas will be treated as waste areas. Therefore, the players will be allowed to move the swings in the sand.
That was Poulter and Nicklaus’s stance regarding the rules. On the other side, Tiger Woods believes that a golfer should know all the rules before coming to the course for the tournament.
He said that it was the discipline and it had to be followed.
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