Golf has complicated rules
So you want to make a ruling? Volunteer for amateur events? It's as easy as ordering a hot dog at the turn. Spend your weekend at a PGA/USGA Rules of Golf Workshop by simply showing up on at 7:30 a.m. Friday and leaving at noon Monday after several hours of study and a 3 ½ hour exam that requires knowing four rules for each question. You've got this!
Masochists? Maybe. Rules enthusiasts spend 24 hours, eight hours a day for three days, in a room scrutinizing 34 rules that cover situations over golf courses across the world.
Complicated? Definitely. Easy? Not quite. A 100-question test follows that confounds a brain more than a physics test at MIT. Okay, so the exam might not be that hard, but many intelligent people have failed miserably.
A very high score and the USGA might invite you to work an event. I've worked the US Junior Amateur for 17 years and would not trade those experiences. I've given rulings to Michelle Wie, Rosie Jones and Laura Diaz at the four US Women's Opens I've worked.
As a committee member for the NCAA D-I National Championship since 2003, I've refereed matches that involved Jordan Spieth, Peter Uihlein and Patrick Reed. Fun stuff!
Why do the rules have to be so problematical? Think about this. A football field is 100 yards with stripes every 10 yards. A basketball court in Indiana is the same size as one in Alabama. Even baseball stadiums from Fenway to Los Angeles build mounds the same length from home plate.
Golf? Not so much. Pebble Beach's borders a lateral water hazard known as the Pacific Ocean while The Open identifies the Champion Golfer of the Year with Hell Bunkers, Road Holes and Postage Stamps. Every course is different; every hole is different, even if they're similar. The weather can dictate rules changes.
A basketball referee can show up shortly before game time and call a great game while a good referee in golf must show up in time to read the conditions and supplemental rules and tour the course. Lines define out of bounds on a football stadium while fences, roads, stakes and posts might delineate the boundary on a golf course.
Golf referees do have one distinct advantage: they don't have to "get out of Dodge" when the final shot is holed. Arguments are seldom heard, unless of course referees have to penalize players for slow play, disqualify a player for not signing a card or inform golfers that they've been eliminated for violating a "must correct" rule.
Tommy Snell, golf coach at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, writes a column for the Sun Herald.
This story was originally published March 13, 2016 at 12:53 PM with the headline "Golf has complicated rules ."