When first reading this post, many of you may think, “Chuck, why are you commenting on golf today?” I’m not, I am going to talk about the perceptions many have about ethics in 2017 and Lexi Thompson lived that sports ethics moment!
Lexi Thompson is an incredible golfer. You certainly don’t need me to tell you that. On March 25, 2017 (a Saturday), she was playing the final round of the LPGA ANA Inspiration golf tournament. It was at the beautiful Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California.
In that final round, Lexi Thompson was way out in front. Then she proceeded to violate the rules by picking up her ball to “mark it” before making a putt and then she put it back in the wrong place. No official saw it happen. Incredibly, a television viewer did see it. The viewer emailed the golf association a day later explaining what she had seen.
The officials reviewed the tape on Sunday and then penalized Thompson four strokes. The four-stroke penalty was assessed for misplacing the ball and for signing the scorecard incorrectly.
Her comment to the official, and I quote her exactly: “Is this a joke?” Thompson later said that the ruling was ridiculous. I am sure that to her mind it was. She still came close to winning. The four-stroke penalty put her into a playoff situation and she ultimately lost the tournament.
Serious Role or Acting Assignment?
Lexi Thompson implied that she was so devastated, she was going to take a three-week break. Tiger Woods, who might know a thing or two about golf, took to Twitter saying: “Viewers at home should not be officials wearing stripes.”
My thoughts from a golf perspective are that Lexi Thompson is not a junior member of the women’s high school golf team. She is a professional golfer. I am pretty sure she knows how to mark a ball. The official who penalized her made an apology before assessing the penalty. Why the apology, I have no idea.
The surprising comment in all of this is Tiger Woods’ anger at the LPGA for listening to a viewer. I need not explain that a golf course in larger than, let’s say, a basketball court. The viewer had every right to point out the rules violation, but that is hardly the point. Is a rules violation only a violation if an official sees it?
Let’s move away from golf and think about baseball and other sports. A receptionist for a large, but exclusive sports medicine practice takes the wrong turn at her clinic and sees a physician injecting a major-league player with a PED. Too far-fetched or unreasonable for you? How about an assistant football coach at a major university seeing a retired coach abusing a little boy in a shower? Or, imagine you are minding your own business, eating lunch in a restaurant and you overhear one man saying to the other “Hit her just below the kneecap just bad enough so she can’t compete.” That evening, you read a professional ice skater was attacked not more than ten miles from where you were having lunch.
If the people in charge don’t see such violations, should we pretend that they never happened? Should we say nothing?
My guess is that any other professional golfer on that tour would have said something to either Lexi Thompson or an official even if the official had not seen it. It all becomes a matter of ethics.
Wells Fargo, Volkswagen and Other Messes
The huge fines recently imposed on banking giant Wells Fargo or auto maker Volkswagen did not come about because SEC, regulatory or EPA officials saw it happen, but as the result of whistleblowers. Bank officers and engineers knew they were being unethical. Had they not been caught, chances are they would not have reported it.
With apologies to Tiger Woods and Lexi Thompson, the fan was right. Ethics is. Good ethics are not relative to a situation. A stockbroker, lawyer, accountant or physician who commits an unethical act is not exonerated because he or she is usually deemed a “nice person” or good-looking or wealthy. If they are caught being unethical and there is proof of that fact, then someone needs to say or do something.
Your Comments are Welcome!
Chuck, you’re absolutely right on target. Just because the official didn’t see it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen and we all know better, or should know better than to try to get away with something that is so on ethical.
You are so hilariously wrong. “Cheating” by definition implies an advantage was gained, but none was. If you look at the “tape” The putt wasn’t more than a few inches. The error in her placement was more on the X axis. And apologies?? You bet your ignorance it was warranted. Rules officials that travel with the players should have called the infraction but they called none. She was penalized 3 extra strokes for that alone. One more for leaving the green and two more for signing an incorrect scorecard. Why is the player responsible for the officials oversight? Do football players have to call a penalty on themselves if none is called?? Lastly, some “viewer” emailed. Emailed who?? This viewer (it’s already fact it was an Asian viewer), clearly was someone with enough clout that a PGA official would pay attention to. The partisan nature of that act alone is far more noteworthy than the centimeters of difference in the ball placement. If you’ve ever raised a child that played youth sports, you’d likely never have written this. This was an embarrassing event for the LPGA and professional sports in general. This “commentary” you’ve provided is as shameful as it is unwarranted and unnecessary.