Half of Accused LPGA Conspirators Share Their Side
by Ryan Ballengee on Aug 31, 2010 11:12 AM EDT
in Pro Golf
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PrintWhen Larry Smich first posted accusations on his blog that Shi Hyun Ahn and Il Mi Chung had knowingly conspired to cheat the Rules of Golf at the CN Canadian Women's Open, it kind of went under the radar. After our report, it grew a little. The bigger entities looked into it, and have spurred LPGA Tour and player committee investigations.
Still, neither Shi Hyun Ahn nor Il Mi Chung has given their side of the story.Beth Ann Baldry tried to track down both - and their caddies, integral to the story - for their angle on things.
Baldry was only able to get Chung (through her agent through an interpreter) and her caddie for the week, Chris Benz. Ahn and her caddie are not quoted for the piece.
The bulk of the story focuses on Benz, who says he noticed that Chung was putting the wrong ball on the green. (When is crucial here, but Benz does not say. Before she putted? As he cleaned the ball after it was marked? Not sure.)
Unaware of the "wrong ball" rule - unbelievable! - he still told Danielle Downey's caddie (the third player in the group) about what he noticed. After holing out, Benz then says he talked to both Ahn and Chung, then they conversed in Korean, then agreed to talk to a rules official.
Chung's agent says she realized the mistake when she was signing her ball for the walking scorer after the round.
Benz, though, remains uncertain of when the players themselves really knew of the issue. Talking to Baldry, Benz rhetorically asked, "When did (the players) know?"
Baldry learned that Chung spoke with LPGA Tour officials on Monday. No word yet from Ahn, her looper, or if/how either interview went.
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Rut ro? (I get the reference, but why?)
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by Ryan Ballengee on Aug 31, 2010 11:59 AM EDT reply actions
sometimes we see something so many times that we don't pay attention to it
Couple of things
First – this is yet another example of why BAB’s needs to go work for a women’s gossip magazine – she just doesn’t know the game well enough to ask all of the necessary questions.
Second – The more I read about this – the more it comes across as everybody is guilty and nobody is guilty. It is very conceivable that 4 people who are concentrating on the job at hand could overlook something and take for granted that they are right, which they are 99.9% of the time. Caddy #1 puts his bag down by the ball he thought was the correct ball, so caddy #2 goes to the other ball, assuming that caddy #1 knew where he was going. The players are busy with their calculations or chatting or whatever they are doing – they don’t think about the ball, either. Marks are usually not all that big and there is a lot of ball that is visible without being able to see the markings.
It is also conceivable that the caddies were tossed the balls on the green, gave them a quick wipe and didn’t pay attention to the marking. Then they handed the balls back to the players, who are reading the green and lining up the line on the ball, not the personal marking, and once again missed what had happened.
If one caddy noticed the mistake and didn’t say anything – he was wrong and may have cost both players – or it could have been an honest mistake and didn’t think about it until later. DOH !
According to BAB’s – the player who noticed it didn’t notice it until she had left the green and was signing her ball for the score keeper. When she realized what happened, she talked with the other player (in Korean – because it’s easier for them than English) and reported the error.
Conceivable ? I think so. I’m not ready to jump all over these four for what is possibly an honest mistake.
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
Doesn’t explain the purported ‘you didn’t see anything’ comment.
by Charles Boyer on Aug 31, 2010 1:17 PM EDT up reply actions
Could it have been, “You didn’t see anything?”
"(I)f you think you've got an inside track to absolute truth, you become doctrinaire, humorless and intellectually constipated." Saul Alinsky
True
There’s a lot more to this story than we know, and I suppose it will all come out in the wash sooner or later.
I hope there’s no conscious attempt to cheat, that would be a black eye the LPGA can ill-afford.
by Charles Boyer on Aug 31, 2010 1:51 PM EDT up reply actions
agreed
"(I)f you think you've got an inside track to absolute truth, you become doctrinaire, humorless and intellectually constipated." Saul Alinsky
Golf's Rules
Michelle Wie knows about as much about the rules as most pros. The chauvinism from both genders toward MW is unbelievable. I think it is rooted in the fact she signed a large
endorsement contract then dared to tee it up on the Men’s Tours.
However, of MW’s 4 rule gaffs, 2 should never have been levied! Wie was asked in her first tournament to go back and recreate her drop on a hole the prior day! Annika S. would not have even considered a return to the course the next day to guess (1) were her ball was in a bush, and (2) guess where she dropped the ball. MW not knowing any better, went back and tried to duplicate the prior days action.(Where were her all of her controlling advisors?) As best as I have been able to glean, they(whoever called for the return) could not discern if the new drop was proper so they physically measured (with a string?) The measure reflected the drop was 12" closer than the bird(ball) in the bush. It appeared that the measurement was made from about 35 to 50 feet from pin. This precise measurement should call for a new special optical tool to be added to the bag and a official to be called for every drop!
The genius from SI would have needed a special tool to make his day delayed call to make sure that he was exactly lined up at right angles to the ball in the bush and the ball as dropped. Also, Why did this golf expert wait a day to call this egregious violation of the rules.
The round was over, the hole was over, the day was over, the most that should have been done was for someone to tell the field to double check any drop before playing the next shot. Mark the spot with a tee that is square to the hole and the drop behind this mark. This stupid call by the rules officials is an example of what is wrong with golf.
Now for my suggestion, a variation from BBall, no gain no foul, ESC2
ps: Does golf have any federalist papers to determine the origin and purpose of the rules?
ps2: Golf is mainly a mental game and the LPGA sure got Michelle off with a positive welcome!!! More rule discussion to come! The din of support of MW in this fiasco was deafening!!!
lol – Chavanism from both genders ?
Couple of quick clues – most people who say they don’t like Michelle Wie don’t care that she signed big endorsement contracts except that she did it before she had actually accomplished anything. But that’s minor.
Most people who aren’t on the Wie bandwagon don’t like the media hype that has been surrounding her since she was 12 years old. What she started doing next really rubbed people the wrong way because of the media hype. She started placing herself above the LPGA – proclaiming that she belonged with the men and not the women. That her goals included playing in The Masters (a goal that disappeard when she turned 16 and took the professional money – the only way she would ever get into The Masters was by winning a US Am or Public Links), and on the Ryder Cup. Those statements might have been laughed off as just being a precocious 13 or 14 year old – but she started believing her press and accepted invitations to play with the men. In a few events, when the men were having to play nice with the little girl because they didn’t want to appear mean, she did alright. Then she went to Europe and the men there didn’t put up with the circus and just buried her. After that, the string of DFL’s continued in the US, and she finally stopped trying to play with the men.
She wasn’t asked to recreate that drop in order to punish her. She was ALLOWED to recreate the drop as an attempt to show that she did it right…which she didn’t do. Since then, she has proven not only that she doesn’t know the rules, she has admitted that she has never READ the rules. On top of that, she proved that she was willing to lie to get out of a penalty, when she grounded her club in a hazard.
federalist papers to determine the origin of the rules ?? What does that even mean ? The federalist papers were rejected as the basis of The Constitution. The original rules of golf, starting with the first three – “Play the ball as it lies, play the course as you find it, and if you cannot do either, do what is fair.”
Not sure what “din of support” you’re talking about. She was roundly chastized for not knowing the rules, and if nothing else, not knowing to call an official if you’re not sure. The people who were screaming that the rule weren’t fair were mostly the star struck minions who read The Enquirer or People or We or O magazines. People who don’t understand the rules. Pretty much the same thing happened with Dustin Johnson.
A lot of us would love to see Wie grow into her talent, maybe even learn how to putt some day…and who knows…maybe even be able to pass a remedial English speech class…but only time is going to tell. But you don’t get relief from the rules just because you’re on the cover of a lot of magazines.
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
Court, you are starting to put alot of blather
out, and not everyone is either believing it or enthralled by it….What I think, you getting closer to large foot in mouth…..that’s a disease that’s hard to cure….jist sayin….STUB
ESC2.....Welcome. Nice comments
Don’t let ole court bother you. He’s ok, but we don’t let him out much……if you know what I mean…….:)
The Saints ARE the SUPER BOWL CHAMPS....WHO DAT!
Din of support/there was none!
You prove my point!! Ask any successful women, where their most vile critics come from.
Those who like to make up the rules as they go along,without actually changing them, don’t like to know how they were developed. Sort of like ignoring the palming of the ball that made giant bball players able to move around with being stripped of the ball.
The grounding situation was another bad call by old men thinking they they know everything. If anyone is looking for the truth, it might be a good idea to look at the video of Wie’s grounding of the club. The club can be grounded on purpose or by accident when the player believes or is losing their balance. Wie’s left foot turned right as she looked at her right foot in the water as she set the club down. She said she thought she was going lose her balance. Of course she was making up an excuse and the only way she could have proved she did slip, was to do a Woody! She did not lie, look at the video!
My whole point was that the drop should not have been questioned on the basis of one man’s opinion.
I don’t believe she was “allowed” to prove she was right about the drop, it should not have been questioned!!!
The din, was all the support everyone said was undeserved. Sarcasm is hard to explain to someone that has difficulty with english!
Growing up in a multi-lingual home can affect ones speech patterns, but she probably picked up her speech problems from her peers, ya know!
Please go help Tiger move another boulder and spend another 30 minutes looking for a lost ball. Just give him a free drop. No one ever gave him any special rules.He is a real golfer and would never have signed a 20 million dollar contract until he had proved himself as a pro.
Do you like Wie’s new Dragon Lady mascara. I believe Michelle Wie is proof that GOD is not always fair when he passes out talent and stature. ESC2
Guess you missed Rule #1 in the women’s rule book – “Women make the rules, and if the male-pig-dog starts to catch on – change the rule.” :-D
Amazing how young guys think they know everything with little or no experience.
LOL – growing up in a multi-lingual home ? Korean and Valley Girl ? She doesn’t have a Korean accent, in case you haven’t noticed – but she does sound like she grew up watching bad 80’s movies. I used to teach English in downtown Phoenix. We had one rule – during that one hour, they had to leave the slang and “teen-isms” outside the door. Every kid in those classes did just fine. It took a few days for them to learn the game, but inside of a week, they spoke solid English and knew that they could behave in a more formal situation if they had to. And I learned the proper use of “dude” and “chica” and a lot of other slang terms during lunch. Wie is a legacy into Stanford – she should know better.
What does mascara have to do with her golf swing ? I hadn’t even noticed her makeup.
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
Sorry, ESC2
You lost any credibility in the world of neutrality – most of us have watched the video ad nauseum of the grounding of the club in the hazard – penalty!
Wie slip
Many watched the video, but not closely. If you don’t see her concern about her stability, her left foot turning on its right edge,just as she lays the club on the grass. It looks to me that she was afraid of slipping or was slipping. The call was hers to make, not the old men. I didn’t ask if you saw the video, i asked that critics watch it again. That is if they would like to be credible. Credibility does not stem from neutrality, but from the evidence.
Should we be looking for a YouTube video like the “Leave Britney Alone” ones a few years back ?
Wie was never concerned about her balance, She was watching her ball – you’re not paying much attention to the evidence.
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
It looks to you, ESC2
that she was afraid of slipping – but not to me. Nonsensical to state that people did not watch the video closely. I’m neither an old man nor a Michelle Wie hater.
one ?
Why did MW’s left foot roll right just before the club was grounded in the grass?
Club grounding rules purpose is?
To penalize anyone testing the surface in a hazard? Incidental touching of a dead piece of grass?(Brian Davis}, Incidental touching of a leaf in a trap(MW), Grounding in a ugly sort of trap(DJ), these are some situations that need review.
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