PGA TOUR to Continue Allowing Viewer Call-Ins

Just days before play began at Augusta National and as players pursue their green jacket, one of the PGA’s longstanding rules has come into question.  And despite the protest of many players, the rule of viewer call-ins looks like it will be here to stay for PGA events.

For those that are unfamiliar with this rule, it allows for viewers of any golf event to call into the PGA to report a potential rules violation that they saw at an event.  Following the report, officials will review the event and see if there was a potential rules violation that occurred.  While this is not a common problem, many players are speaking out against the rule after seeing what happened to LPGA TOUR player Lexi Thompson last week.

“Our current attitude is we will accept information from all sources.”

– Andy Pazder, the Tour’s chief of operations

While participating in the ANA Inspiration, the first major on the LPGA schedule, Thompson had a two-stroke lead with only six holes to play.  She was then approached by LPGA officials who informed her that she had incurred a two-stroke penalty for incorrectly marking her ball in round three and then incurred another two-stroke penalty for signing an incorrect scorecard.  These penalties came from the call-in rule and cost her the championship.

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The fact that the viewer call-in rule had such a large impact on the outcome of a tournament, and a major championship at that, has many players at Augusta this week up in arms.  Rickie Fowler has publicly called for the end of this rule and Tiger Woods went a little further, tweeting that “Viewers at home should not be officials.”

Despite the overall consensus that the rule is an inefficient one, the PGA TOUR does not seem ready to have a rules official on staff to review all shots at their tournaments.  “I don’t think we would do away with call-ins,” said Andy Pazder, the Tour’s chief of operations.  “Our current attitude is we will accept information from all sources.”

Hopefully, nothing of this magnitude will happen on the PGA TOUR, especially this weekend at Augusta, but it seems like PGA officials will need to find some alternative to viewer call-ins in the future or face more backlash.

Cover Image via YouTube