This story disgusts me. I can accept umpires making mistakes on bang-bang plays that sometimes are too quick and too close for the naked eye to get correctly. But there is NO excuse for this sort of Gestapo-ism.


A couple of rules officials on the Duramed Futures Tour DQ-ed a player that was within striking distance of the lead halfway through the final round. No discussion, no appeal, just threw her off the course for having a non-conforming club. What's the problem? The club was legal. They botched it and rather than taking the time to get it right, rather than letting her finish the round and get a definitive ruling later, they just threw her out of a tournament that she had a chance to win. Repulsive. And apparently the officials still have their jobs.

http://www.thegolfchannel.com/shag-bag/ ... ake-38676/

The futures tour is and always has been a bush league joke. Calling these guys officials is a slap in the face to actual officials. Small men making small minded misguided decisions. The futures tour should step up and and fork over equivalent winners check compensation, but they won't. They're just a step above a local men's league. Seriously, I am surprised anyone gives them enough coverage to even hear about this. I think many think this is the ladies version of the nationwide tour... not even close.

I was repulsed, even looked up some more articles on it, got even more repulsed. The head honcho governing these two officials didn't even reprimand, just said how dedicated & wonderful they were. If they were so damm dedicated, then why did it take them til after the 9th hole of the FOURTH & FINAL round to rule the club illegal? If they were so "dedicated", why hadn't they found a "problem" in the FIRST round? It'd be nice to see both the chick & Ping sue their asses off.

Mel, they didn't find out about it until the 4th round because it was reported to them anonymously that the wedge was non-conforming (which we all know was wrong).

The thing that gets me is that in a previous event, the winner was DQ'ed after the tournament was over because of non-conforming grooves, which allowed the runer-up (now winner) into the U.S. Open. How come they tossed this young woman instead of letting her finish while they double-checked things?

letting her finish while they double-checked things?


Exactly, that's what should have happened.

The way it's run might be one step above a mens league, or hell, even one step below a mens league. But the stakes are high enough that the tour is damn sure not bush league. These girls are playing for their lives, there are 10 LPGA Tour cards up for grabs out there and for anyone at this level that is EVERYTHING.

I hope she sues them. They can't give her 1st place money as that could knock somebody else out of a card and open the door to another suit. But this girl got robbed and deserves compensation.

I wonder what compensation would be if this cost her a tour card,

That was my point about this pair being touted as dedicated & wonderful. They were anything but. They took it on RUMOUR in the middle of the last round that the club was illegal & ousted the chick. Gestapo tactics. Guilty by ANONYMOUS ACCUSATION.