Practice imperfect for golfer
PGA Tour player Jeff Overton discovered Saturday there is no gray area when it comes to breaking rules in golf.
Overton was at4-under par, seven shots out of the lead and headed toward a nice paycheck, when he was disqualified from the Colonial Invitational midway through his third round in Fort Worth.
His crime?
Overton used an alignment stick while practicing his putting as his group waited for a logjam of golfers to clear on the 10th tee.
To hear Overton tell it, rules officials told golfers they could practice their putting andchipping at a nearby practice green.
“3 group backup at the turn,” Overton tweeted after his disqualification. “Rules official tells me we can practice chipping and putting. Disqualified for using my practice putting aid!
“Why do rules officials initiate that conversation to begin with. I wouldn’t even have gone up there if I had known that. What a joke!
“If ur gonna inform someone on a rule of something a person can do, make sure u remind them of the small things they can’t do.
“Tough break today. Looks like I gotta go back and re-memorize a couple hundred pages of the USA rules book!”
That might not be a bad idea, said Mark Russell, the PGA Tour vice president of rules and competition.
“You can go to a designated practice area and chip and putt if you’d like while you are waiting to play, but you cannot use an artificial device,” Russell said, explaining the ruling. “That’s what he did. The penalty for that is disqualification.”
Russell said Overton asked a starter if he was allowed to use a practice area while he waited for the backup to clear at the 10th tee- not exactly the way Overton explained it - and Russell said the starter said he was allowed to use the practice area.
“He was playing a stipulated round,” Russell said. “During a stipulated round, you can’t use any type of artificial device or swing aid or alignment aid or anything like that. I mean, it’s a shame, but that’s the rule, not much we can do about it.”
What is a shame is how the infraction was brought to Russell’s attention - by another player. A yet to be named player, it should be pointed out.
Overton has been chided by purists who said he is a professional, should know the rules and has nobody to blame but himself.
Others, like golf writer Adam Fonseca, a contributor to numerous Internet sites, took time to point out that Overton’s error, while a violation, doesn’t seem to be on a scale of other infractions equating to disqualification.
“So you can literally hit a small bucket of pitches and chips on a practice green in the middle of your round, but as soon as you lay down an object to help with alignment, you break the rules,”Fonseca wrote. “Not only that, you don’t just get penalized, you get disqualified.
“Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”
It soothes the pain
New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez, who has been sidelined all seasonby a hip injury, sold his Miami home for $30 million and turned a $15 million profit.
“Alas,” wrote Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times, “it’s his only double of the season.”
Find your own date
Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade made a surprise appearance to the delight of a local teen who had asked him to be her prom date.
“Everyone was thrilled,” write Greg Cote of the Miami Herald, “with the possible exception of the boy who actually was her prom date.”Quote of the day
“We feel like we kind of
get looked over around the country.” Arkansas outfielder Matt Vinson on the Razorbacks not getting to host an NCAA regional
Sports, Pages 14 on 05/28/2013