I have to admit to hating that this happened to so many people this year, especially considering the majority of the issues that happened were to leaders (TV doesn’t show the 42nd place player very often.) What happened this year with viewers calling in to tournament hosts to tell them that there was a penalty should have never happened. Did an infraction happen for most of them, sure, but missing where you marked the ball by an inch or two on a tap in really doesn’t affect that game at all. Neither does using the rules in horrible ways (like getting relief from a hospitality tent) to your advantage, but that’s another day’s story.) Ultimately, the USGA/R&A announced today that they will no longer allow “viewer call-ins as a part of the Rule decision process.” They also announced a temporary ruling for a Local Rule eliminating the additional 2 stroke penalty for not counting penalty strokes when the player was not aware of the infraction to start with. This would have been a game changer this season for a few players, and honestly never should have been enforced from the start in these call-in situations.
So, congrats USGA for getting this one right. Hopefully, the 2019 rules changes will starting making life a bit easier for all of us, but getting these two put on the books for 2018 professional tournaments is big.
You can check out the USGA video update on this here - https://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/articles/2017/12/local-rule--new-video-review-protocols-introduced-for-2018.html
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