In regards to the recent Jordan Spieth incident, of which his incorrect scorecard disqualified him from a tournament… I mean, this is 2024. Every shot he takes is being recorded and discussed. Everyone in charge of running that event already knew what his score was, so why does an error like this erase his results? Is any other sport like this in which the players can be disqualified for being bad at math?
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To answer your question, I do 3D archery and we keep and fill our own scorecards in the group similar to golf. We too can get disqualified if the score is not kept properly, even in world championship event.
You can definitely get into hot water in chess if you’re not keeping your score sheet. Not sure if people actually get DQ’d these days, but it’s there so that players can reconstruct the position from it later for analysis, or if something happens during the game (let’s say someone stumbles into the table and knocks some pieces over).
Also players have to sign each other’s score sheets at the end, demonstrating that they agree with the outcome, minimizing disputes. It can also be a useful resource to the arbiter if there are disputes in-game (this is more true in lower level tournaments where there might be dozens of games being played in the same hall with no digital recording and only a few volunteer arbiters).
At the very least they need to allow the players to confer with the walking scorer’s tally just so mistakes like these don’t ruin players and fans tournaments.
Tradition and it’s a gentleman’s sport, requiring you to have integrity and accountability for yourself.
Because the golf scoring systems are large and complex and require dozens and dozens of unpaid volunteers to operate (walking scorers get training the week of the event), even at the highest levels of golf. Mistakes are sometimes caught right away but many times are not caught until that scorecard is signed after the round.
It’s a rule. Interestingly one of the rules of golf is that you aren’t allowed to change a rule.
Every shot by him is recorded, true, is every shot by Chun An Yu or Adam Schenk? Not always
It’s a damn joke and LIV will only gain traction because of this dumb shit the PGA pulls. “It keeps the integrity of the game alive”…no. it doesn’t. It makes your professional sports league look like an amateur event. The tourneys we hold at our shithole course are literally better organized than the PGA events.
For the most part, players want to be in charge of keeping their own scores. They don’t and shouldn’t trust a third party to make sure it’s correct because no third party will care more about it being accurate than they do. That doesn’t mean they don’t occasionally make mistakes, but walking scorers make mistakes much more frequently than the players do.
Probably the penalty (DQ) for signing a bad card is too harsh, but it’s not like the players are clamoring to give up control of keeping their own scores.
Hot take here, but I’m OK with this happening. Golf is about honor, self-accountability, and integrity.
It’s truly a sport where everyone plays the same rules, and the best scores move higher in the sport. There’s a beauty in the equality across the game.
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