Japanese golfer bans herself from tour
The rules of golf can often seem quaint, arbitrary, perhaps even unnecessarily prissy - just ask Michelle Wie - but for one player, the standard penalty for any deviation from those rules simply doesn't go far enough.
After initially reacting to a penalty by flouncing off the course, Japanese LPGA tour player Yuko Mitsuka has now decided to ban herself from 11 tournaments.
Mitsuka first received the two-stroke penalty at last week's World Ladies Championship after she was judged to be playing too slowly - and like some enraged female equivalent of Larry David, her reaction was to stalk off the course in a fury, thus incurring a record fine of 2million yen (around £14,000) from the JLPGA authorities.
Rather harsh punishment if you ask us, but the 25-year-old is clearly at great pains to emphasise her new-found penitence. On top of accepting the fine, Mitsuka has also voluntarily withdrawn from eight domestic and three overseas events in a bid to excuse her actions.
"This is the biggest fine in Japanese LPGA history and reflects the seriousness of what took place," commented tour spokesman Hideaki Otani. "The player offered to withdraw from those tournaments and the tour accepted that as the right punishment."
Upstanding, if bewildering behaviour Yuko, though it's entirely possible that Mitsuka was just seeking to make amends in a bid to avoid facing even more devastatingly punitive measures; back in 2006, the JLPGA suspended a player for 10 years after she falsified her scorecard.
God knows what they'd make of me if I ever managed to blag my way onto a Japanese golf course; they'd probably have me summarily executed for desecrating the game.
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