I hope you know me by now and my style of writing....... sometimes I insert sarcasm in my posts, and this one is no exception.
The title which has the word 'scandal' in!
Let me fill you in with what it's about.
This past Sunday, the LPGA'S first major of the year with the top lady golfers of the world putting on a cracking performance, especially Lexi Thompson, at just aged 22 (it seems like she's been around forever) at the thick of it with one of the performances of her life at a tough Mission Hills in California.
Going into the last 6 holes, she was 2 ahead of her nearest challenger and then was told by officials that a TV viewer had emailed in who had noticed a rules infringement from her the day before. Lexi had, upon replays, marked her ball on one green and then clearly replaced it back in a different position to where it originally lay, deeming her gaining an advantage and thus a 2 shot penalty and then another 2 shot penalty on top of that because she signed for a wrong score on the Saturday night (she should've added the 2 shot penalty but obviously didn't know she had incurred it).
As you've guessed , social media was a frenzy of activity with various opinions generated from all golfing circles. You know when its a big news story when Tiger Woods tweets his opinion about it!
The general consensus was, as human life naturally tends to be, fairly negative. Negative towards the guy who emailed in, negative towards the LPGA for enforcing the ruling but, slightly surprisingly, not towards Lexi. It was pretty obvious it was not replaced in it's original position and she's been a tad silly.
But, what I wholeheartedly disagree with is the negative comments towards the game of Golf!
It is ridiculous in a time when a vast amount of influencers in the game are trying to grow participation by introducing a new generation of players are saying this incident involving Lexi has damaged the reputation of the game!
What a load of BS!
It's a silly thing she's done and she will be the first to admit that. Was the guy who emailed in a bit of an anorak? Potentially, but that's not the point.
The game of golf did not lose out at the weekend. It did not damage it's reputation. The only thing that damaged it were these influencers crying out that it is a reason people are put off from the game through rulings like this.
Everyone is gutted for Lexi. That guy who emailed in might not be the most popular man on the planet. But come on...... it didn't damage the game of Golf!