Head Golf Professional at McGolf Learning Center/PGA Apprentice

Camilo Villegas gets disqualified from Kapalua for a rules violation.  After the first round a Television viewer posted a tweet saying that he saw Camilo break a rule. I heard the man who posted that tweet on a radio show and he told his story. He was just watching the golf with his buddies and one of his friends commented that Camilo couldn’t move the divot as his ball was rolling back because the divot was now a loose impediment and his ball was in motion. That is a violation of Rule 23-1 that says, “When a ball is in motion, a loose impediment that might influence the movement of the ball must not be removed.” The penalty is two strokes. Unfortunately Camilo had completed his round and already signed his scorecard, which now was an incorrect scorecard. ”It makes me sick … that it wasn’t recognized prior to him signing his card,” said Slugger White, the PGA Tour’s vice president of rules. Villegas handled the situation very well and said  ”If somebody called something in, I probably did something wrong.” He obviously didn’t know the rule and if he did know that was a rules violation, he never would have done that. The man who posted the tweet never thought it would make the news it did. He couldn’t believe no body else saw that and he was just making a comment on Twitter. What really stinks about the situation is that his ball wouldn’t have even hit the divot that he moved, but that doesn’t matter because it could have. If you’re going to play golf at a competitive level, then you better know the rules because the rules of golf can help you as much as they can hurt you! A great place to learn the rules is www.USGA.org under rules and decisions.

by eric mcinerney