Memorial scoring penalty question

[Paul Schueller]

I am a tournament novice. I have only played one tournament. I do understand the penalty that Will took, but I feel it should have been prevented. I understand that his name appeared on the card first and therefore he was responsible for the scoring and turning the card it. But isn't it standard procedure to pass the card around so that the whole group can approve of the scoring. If so, shouldn't one Will's two teammates , GG and Ricky, or Phil Arthur who was caddying for him, say 'hey, you better fix this or you will get a penalty'? Ultimately, Will screwed that one up, but I think the team should have prevented the penalty.

[Josh Connell]

I am a tournament novice. I have only played one tournament. I do understand the penalty that Will took, but I feel it should have been prevented. I understand that his name appeared on the card first and therefore he was responsible for the scoring and turning the card it. But isn't it standard procedure to pass the card around so that the whole group can approve of the scoring. If so, shouldn't one Will's two teammates , GG and Ricky, or Phil Arthur who was caddying for him, say 'hey, you better fix this or you will get a penalty'? Ultimately, Will screwed that one up, but I think the team should have prevented the penalty.

I think it's very likely that between the walking scoreboard that was with the group and the volunteer who was updating the live scorecard on pdga.com, double-checking his scorecard (which is obviously the official one) amongst the group wasn't viewed as necessary. I bet in the rush to celebrate with his teammates and run off to do interviews for the TV and online broadcasts, Will, or his caddy, handed off the card without a second thought since there were so many scorekeeping redundancies in place. Plus, I believe each player had their own individual card rather than one group card, so it's very possible it got handed in without anyone else in the group seeing it.

A few of the bigger events with tee time formats, like Vibram or the USDGC, have a procedure in place in which players have to go directly from the 18th green to the scoring tent/office before anything else happens (interviews, etc). It's obvious that even if the Memorial had a similar procedure for collecting scorecards, it wasn't observed, at least by Will. Otherwise there's no way what happened would have happened.

Lesson learned, I hope.

[Paul Schueller]

Ah, the scorecard for each player definitely can help explain this. So, GG and Ricky couldn't have bailed him out in that case, but come on Phil. Seems like the Memorial, being an NT, should be 'big' enough for an official scoring tent. Another thing that crossed my mind in this situation is that he didn't have to rush to turn the card in. Doesn't the rule book say you have a half hour to turn in the card. If there is a scoring tent, that might over rule that, but seems there wasn't.

[John DeBois]

There's a scoring tent about 75 feet from the 18th hole. Players are instructed to go to the tent after completion of the round to go over the scores before handing them in. At least that's how it was last year.

[Josh Connell]

Ah, the scorecard for each player definitely can help explain this. So, GG and Ricky couldn't have bailed him out in that case, but come on Phil. Seems like the Memorial, being an NT, should be 'big' enough for an official scoring tent. Another thing that crossed my mind in this situation is that he didn't have to rush to turn the card in. Doesn't the rule book say you have a half hour to turn in the card. If there is a scoring tent, that might over rule that, but seems there wasn't.

You have a half hour, but it's considered bad form to run off and do congratulatory interviews and all that before anything is official. As bad and embarrassing as it was for Will to be pulled out of the DiscGolfPlanet booth mid-interview because of the scoring error, imagine if he hadn't turned in the card at all.

There were a few things about the whole scenario that were somewhat out of the ordinary, and probably just added to the confusion. I was surprised that the rest of the group didn't putt out ahead of Will so he could have the stage. Instead, Will putted out and the celebration began while Barsby, and maybe GG too, still had to putt out themselves. I think everyone was a little overzealous about the whole "Team Prodigy!!!1" stuff, got carried away and the scorecard was forgotten.

I bet it won't happen again, at least not to Will.

[Patrick Harris]

I screwed up my scorecard twice in two different tournaments and pay the price dearly.

Never again!!