AVIDGOLFER

Player/Caddie Squabble Is The Ultimate Bad Optic

Rick Arnett /

That is a putter cover aimed directly at the caddie’s head.

Intrigue once again hit the pro tour over a supposed rules violation. This time it occurred during the final round of the Web.com’s Bahamas Great Abaco Classic. All was seemingly okay as Rhein Gibson played the final hole with an excellent chance at a high finish and decent opportunity to win.

Let’s let Golfweek’s Kevin Casey explain the unexplainable details that sent social media into a tizzy.

The Web.com Tour’s Bahamas Great Abaco Classic was finishing up with Rhein Gibson in position for a potential win or at least a high finish. The Aussie pulled off the latter with a solo third showing at 15 under, two shots behind winner Adam Svensson.

But the performance included a bogey at the closing par 5 when a birdie would’ve likely forced a playoff. Gibson’s second shot found a hazard and he took a penalty drop.

The drama really began to simmer when Gibson was assessed an additional one-shot penalty after his caddie, Brandon Davis, retrieved the ball in the hazard before any drop had commenced. That’s because an official ruled that the looper breached Rule 18-2 by picking up a ball while it was still in play.

Gibson was understandably quite upset about the extra infraction, and after chipping to tap-in range for bogey, he harshly let Davis know what he thought about the development:


Yikes. Talk about your bad optics.

“It was just in the heat of the moment. I’m obviously playing well and I put myself in a great position, but when that happens it (could) cost me upwards of 15 or 18 thousands dollars (Editor’s Note: Actually, 12 thousand),” Gibson told the Australian Associated Press. “He walks in there, gets my ball and costs me a penalty. At that point, I’m either trying to chip in or limit the damage and I made a good six (bogey).

Gibson’s “apology.”

The now fired caddie Brandon Davis tweeted his side of the ordeal.

Davis explains his firing further in the video below. It’s worth a watch.

These golf rules are getting out of hand. I (nor it appears anyone else) really knows what the correct ruling was. That said, its merely another pock mark on responsibility, knowledge and when interpretation of the rules can be muddy at best.

UPDATE: Here is what attending rules official Jim Duncan said regarding the penalty. 

The penalty was administered under Rule 18-2, which notes that one shot will be added if a caddie moves a ball while at rest without a player’s authority. Decision 26-1/9 specifically addresses a caddie picking up a ball in a hazard, and Davis believed that it should have negated any potential penalty if there was “no doubt or it was reasonable to assume” the player would not have tried to hit his ball from the hazard.

But the decision also stipulates that any doubt must be resolved “against the player,” meaning the penalty must stand in such instances. In Duncan’s view, the comment Gibson made about not having an opportunity to evaluate the ball for a potential shot meant the penalty should stand.

“I know when I see guys that I’d say are veteran caddies in a search like this, I can picture a few people and they’ve got the bag down and they let the player decide everything,” Duncan said. “Touching a player’s ball, or doing acts that that the player normally does in the foundation of golf, there’s a lot of things that can actually get the player in trouble that the caddie does.”

Duncan noted that Decision 26-1/9 offers officials “a little wiggle room” in certain situations, but in this particular case he believes that the added stroke was the appropriate outcome.

“You’re kind of trying to keep the onus on the player to decide what he’s going to do,” Duncan said, “and not really let the caddie get involved with that part of the game.”

I’m certainly no rules official but the entire matter is as clear as mud.

 

Brandon Davis Golf rules Rheim Gibson Web.com