A College Golfer Shoots a Course Record 62 in a US Open Qualifier, Then DQs Himself Over an Obscure Rules Violation Nobody Noticed
Shutterstock Images.I don't demand any golfer I'm with to play by any rules other than the basic one which says, "You have every right to suck. Just suck fast." If you're scuffling around the course, I'm there for you, my brother. We've all been there. Me especially. Just don't be spending 10 minutes looking for the 12th ball you've lost or be plum-bobbing a putt from 50 feet away when you're lying 7.
Other than that, if there's no money on the line, you play your game and I'll play mine and let's have a great day. My only caveat is that if you're going to just make up rules to suit your needs, you forfeit the right to crow about your score afterwards. I used to play in a night league with a guy who never had a bad lie in his life. He'd hit into the woods, get out his foot wedge to roll it over so he could punch it out cleanly, and thump his chest about his athletic prowess. Then sit in the bar afterwards, singing his own praises about the 42 or whatever he shot. I definitely do NOT hate to break it to the guys who play by their own rules, but you didn't shoot that score you're bragging about at "golf." You shot it at some other game you invented as you went along. You're no better than a 3-year-old playing Candlyland who draws the card to go all the way back to the Peppermint Stick Forest, but just puts it at the bottom of the deck and keeps drawing. You've got to take the bad with the good. At least that's what I'd tell myself as I sat there with a good, honest, hard-earned 53 of Integrity staring back at me from the card.
Which brings us to the US Open qualifying going on around the country as we speak. And an amateur who sacrificed his own hopes and dreams of competing in the Open upon the Altar of Integrity:
Source - I got a DM on Monday from someone who said, “You should follow up on the Tommy Kuhl story; he DQ’d himself.” As I started reporting the story, I hoped I wasn’t about to dive into another cheating incident. As Kuhl shared what happened later that night, I quickly realized it was the exact opposite. I had a story about what makes golf great.
Kuhl was walking with some of his University of Illinois cohorts … and Kuhl had made it through, having just set a course record with a 10-under 62. He was on top of the world. But then teammate Jackson Buchanan mentioned how hard it had been putting on the aerated greens. “I felt sick to my stomach,” Kuhl said. “I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep if I didn’t tell the rules official.” Kuhl was about to DQ himself.
As soon as Buchanan made his comment, Kuhl knew he was probably done. Although the rule for fixing spike marks has been changed, the rule for fixing aeration marks has not. … Kuhl immediately sought out the rules official, explaining what he had done. Soon after, he was informed he had been disqualified. His dream of playing in the U.S. Open will have to wait at least another year. …
This is a reminder about what makes golf great: integrity, honesty and calling a penalty on yourself. This time it cost Kuhl a chance at the U.S. Open, but he will sleep well tonight.
Integrity, honesty, and calling a penalty on yourself are what makes golf great. A good night's sleep is great too. But you know what's even more great? Qualifying for the US Open by shooting a course record 62, that's what.
I mean, holy smokes. Golf is so filled with obscure rules that being familiar with them is like practicing law. At some point, a thing will come up that requires you go hit the law library and look it up to see if there's a legal precedent. Arcane, esoteric stuff about holes created by burrowing animals and such. Hell, how many times watching the Tour on a Sunday do you see a ball land in the shrubbery, and everything comes to a halt while they summon a rules official like he's a wise tribal elder, well versed in the old ways, to give a 10 minute sermon on the Ancient Laws? For Kuhl's US Open dream to die over fixing an aeration mark or two is just cruel. And for him to do himself in like a Samurai committing seppuku borders on insanity. No night's sleep is worth that.
Maybe it's just me. Perhaps I just have a lower standard of honesty than Kuhl does. But it's just easier to relate to sports where everyone's trying to bend the rules to gain a competitive edge than one where guys fall on their own swords due to high ideals the rest of us don't possess. Or at least don't practice. It just defies description that he'd do this. It's like a receiver hauling in an 80-yard touchdown and then going to the refs to confess he pushed off in order to get open. It might be good for the soul. But it's no so great for a guy's chances of winning and getting rich in the process.
But good for Kuhl? I guess. Start the coronation. Break out the regalia and the sacred anointing oils. It's time we crown Tommy Kuhl the King of Golf Integrity. Long live the king. The assholes we all play with could stand to learn a lesson from him. But don't hold your breath.