Friday, Oct. 09, 2009

World Am officials take job seriously

I read with interest golf writer Al Blondin's story about an engaged couple about to set out on the golf trip of a lifetime, playing many of the country's best courses.

The woman in the article, Juanita Rosenfeld, and I have communicated by e-mail several times and our last exchange concerned the integrity of the PGA World Amateur Handicap Championship.

We've all heard over the years that the tournament, based on handicaps, is a cheater's tournament, filled with lying sandbaggers who pad their handicap. That belief is one of the reasons, along with cost, that not many locals play.

The cost factor I can understand, but the sandbagger claim is bogus, in my view.

In the 15 or so years I've played in the World Am, I've never run into anyone whose game did not reasonably match their handicap. I do think some golfers are better at tournament golf than others and play up to their potential when it counts. I fear I'm not one of those.

More importantly, I believe that in the 24 years this tournament has been played, organizers have become experts at weeding out cheaters. I've watched the rules committee disqualify golfers whose handicaps can't be verified - and that is never pleasant.

I'm not talking only about sandbaggers; I'm also talking about golfers who covertly try to improve a lie in the rough or move a ball mark closer to the hole on the green.

After the latest tournament, Rosenfeld e-mailed me to tell me her experience this year, which helped support my point.

Rosenfeld entered the tournament with a handicap index of 11.6 and her net scores for the first three days were 71, 70, 69, and 66. - respectable by any measure.

On Thursday night, she learned she had finished second in her flight and had won a $500 gift certificate.

"Imagine my surprise when I went to collect my money and they said that the leader had been disqualified and I was now the winner," she said. Organizers told her they had had to DQ the winner because the likelihood of her shooting the rounds she had in four days of tournament play was 3500 to 1.

"I do think the committee really does try to discourage folks from padding their handicaps before the tournament and it was proven to me," she said. "Not to say that is what she did. It's also likely she had a really good week of golf, just as I did."

We can give her the benefit of doubt, Juanita, but obviously the rules committee did not.