In the Fall of 2013, six-time European Tour winner Simon Dyson made an embarrassing mistake. After lagging past the hole during the BMW Masters, Dyson reached down and marked his ball. In the next instant, he used his golf ball to tap down a spike mark about four inches in front of his ball. A mindless error. Something you might do in a casual round with buddies, but a penal move in the midst of competition. Dyson’s action was caught on video and he was reminded of what he had done after he had signed his scorecard. According to the rules, the Englishman was rightly disqualified from the tournament.
If only that had been the end of it. Questions swirled around Dyson’s move. Had he tried to hide what he had done, or was it an “honest mistake?” Other players and, more notably, European Tour officials wanted to know. Tour standards are very harsh towards those who demonstrate a flagrant disregard for the rules—as severe as suspension or even expulsion from the Tour.
We live in a strange age. Ask a person to own up about some of the more intimate details of their life, and you have “no right to pry.” But spot a professional golfer committing a penalizable offense, and let the hammer of accountability fall!
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