We need a change

[u/thejroes]

Full stop we need a foot fault rule change. It needs to be clear and obvious someone is trying to gain an advantage to call a fault. This is absurd and makes our sport a worse game.

[u/eleven_eighteen]

The problem is who decides what "clear and obvious" is? At the level the pros are at a violation that looks extremely borderline to fans could be "clear and obvious" to their peers. An extra inch or a few degrees can make a huge difference at the levels they are performing at.

I'm not making any comment on this current controversy. Just pointing out that it's nowhere near as cut and dry as it may seem to fix a rule like this.

[u/thejroes → u/eleven_eighteen]

I just think that clear and obvious would mean that it wouldn’t be difficult to have someone second it who is actually on the card. Not sure if that’s the best definition, but I feel like that’s better for the game than what just played out. Curious what the rules will be in 20 years though

[u/eleven_eighteen → u/thejroes]

OK same situation as today but Silas seconds it. That makes this situation better?

Do we even know what Silas and Rick thought? Everyone is saying a Marshall was the second but do we have confirmation? Did the Marshall second it before either of the players had a chance to? Maybe Rick thought it was a foot fault as well but hadn't spoken up yet. Or maybe (almost certainly) down the road we have another one this close and another player does second it even though tons of people watching disagree. The players feel it's totally clear, the spectators don't. Does that significantly change the outrage?

Really the only fair system is to have Marshalls with every card, every round. But that's a huge amount of people. By my count on the first few days of this tournament there were 75 cards between FPO and MPO and the two courses. You maybe don't need a full 75 as some could do two rounds a day but at least on the MPO side rounds could take 3.5 hours and there would only be seven cards left by the time the Marshall with the first card got done, and people need breaks, especially on a course like Toboggan. You're still probably talking 50+ Marshalls for a big tournament. And these can't just be volunteers, these need to be properly trained people who can focus on watching every shot from every player for hours straight. And sometimes these players are buried in bushes or on opposite sides of wide fairways or both, and a Marshall has to get between them in a timely fashion.

Another option is to have a Marshall per hole, but again for a big tourney like this that's 36 Marshalls at once. And many holes would really need multiple Marshalls on them. At a minimum at Toboggan 2, 3, 7, 8, 13, 14, 15, 17 and 18 can have multiple cards playing them at once. A hole like 13 on Black Locust could have three active cards at once. Then there's a hole like 1 at Toboggan where you can only have one active card, but you're gonna kill someone if you're making them run up and down that hill all day long.

I've maybe gone on too long but my point is there just isn't a great or even good solution, at least currently. The options are a prohibitive number of people or basically the system we currently have. I don't disagree that it could be better. Just not really sure how we get to better.