Life isn’t fair.  But sometimes it is less fair than it ever should be.

Such was the case in the first major championship of the LPGA season.  Twenty-two year old Lexi Thompson exited the twelfth green during the final round believing she had a two stroke lead with six holes to play.  As she approached the thirteenth tee, an LPGA rules official informed her she had been assessed a FOUR stroke penalty.

What could a player possibly have done during the final round to deserve having her major championship hopes turned upside-down? The answer: NOTHING!

I thought about about calling this post, “Five Wrongs Never Make a Right.”  Here’s why.  During Saturday’s third round Thompson inadvertently placed her ball a fraction of an inch away from its original spot in reference to the ball mark she had used.  The infraction was so minor, no one at the time including her playing companion, their caddies, the officials accompanying the twosome or any member of the gallery noticed the difference.

WRONG #1: During the final round a fan watching the third round on DVR called the LPGA to report the infraction.  This is equivalent to someone watching a replay of a hockey game and calling the NHL to report an off-sides the day after a game.  If the off-sides had been called, the offending team would not have scored the tying goal and the winning goal in overtime.  By the LPGA’s logic, the NHL would award the game to the losing team.  As Tiger Woods immediately tweeted, “Viewers at home should not be officials wearing stripes.”

WRONG #2: Thompson was assessed a two-stroke penalty for misplacing her ball 22 hours after the incident had occurred.  Like any NORMAL sport, once a round of golf goes in the record books, it should stand.  HELL, in 1990, the University of Colorado was awarded a victory in a football during which they scored the winning touchdown on an illegal fifth down.  Even after the game officials were notified of the error the score was not take away.

WRONG #3: Because no one called Thompson on the infraction, she signed an inaccurate scorecard at the end of the third round for which she was assessed another two-stroke penalty under USGA rules.  How unfair is that?  I’m sure if she had been notified of the penalty before the end of the third round, she would have added the two strokes to her total and signed what would have been an accurate scorecard.  If so, she still would have won the tournament by two strokes.

WRONG #4: Sometimes common sense needs to take precedence over the letter of the law.  At worse, the LPGA should have assessed Thompson a two-stroke penalty for misplacing her ball.  There is no reasonable justification for the additional two strokes

WRONG #5: This was an opportunity for the other players to protest the unfairness of the LPGA’s actions and demand that the maximum penalty be two-strokes for the misplaced ball.  But no.  Winning was more important than making a moral declaration.  Sadly, that seems to be the order of the day in sports, finance and politics.

Thompson did her best.  She birdied three of the last six holes to make it into a playoff.  If she had won the playoff, many might have called it a fairy tale ending.  I disagree.  That outcome would have let the idiots who run the LPGA off the hook.  There is a proposed rule change that will take place in two years which would not have penalized Thompson for unknowingly signing the inaccurate score card due to no fault of her own.  In other words, the golf gods already recognize how unjust such penalties are.

She may not hold the trophy, but everyone with an ounce of sense knows Lexi Thompson won the ANA Inspiration championship.  And in turn, became an inspiration for young women (and men) everywhere.  Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the LPGA or the other competitors in the tournament.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP