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19th Hole

What do we make of the Ian Poulter vs. marshal fiasco?

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Perhaps you’ve heard about Ian Poulter’s altercation with a marshal at the Scottish Open? (It was in the Morning 9!)

A first point: The marshal in question wasn’t some mere jabroni. In its discussion of the encounter, the Telegraph refers to Quintin Jardine as a “celebrated crime author.” Now, he’s not topping the bestseller lists here in the States, but he is an established author.

This, of course, could work either for or against Mr. Jardine. On the one hand, he’s a perceptive, articulate, respectable fellow. On the other, he has an incentive for self promotion to promote his works…“Did you like my Poulter blog post? You’ll love my latest novel!”

Anyway, here’s the sequence of events.

Jardine posted to his blog (and tweeted a link to) a work of original non-fiction: His account of a run-in with Ian Poulter while working as a Marshal during Saturday’s third round. Poulter had just pulled a drive into a bush near where Jardine was doing his duties.

His blog post read (he’s since deleted the post) in part:

“Mr Poulter…arrived in a shower of expletives and asked me where his ball was,” wrote Jardine. “I told him and said that I had not ventured into the bush for fear of standing on it. I wasn’t expecting thanks, but I wasn’t expecting aggression either.

“He told me in essence that I should have, his reasoning being that if I stood on the ball it was a free drop, whereas if he did it was a penalty… He (later) came back at me and said again that next time … I should go straight in there feet first.”

The implication, of course, is that Jardine believed Poulter was asking him to stomp around in the bush for the ball, suggesting that if he (the marshal) were to dislodge it, Poults would be entitled to a free drop.

This was not Poulter’s recollection of events, and he took to Twitter to respond, disputing the insinuation that he was trying to cheat and more.

A point of note: What Poulter said to Jardine at the time may be another issue, but he is correct in tweeting that if the ball was kicked or stepped on during he search, he’s entitled to replace it (per Rule 18-4), which is certainly not the same thing as a free drop. He would seem to be incorrect in saying he’d be penalized, however, as a search was underway…however, an overly zealous reading of the rule could have left Poulter in hot water, had he moved the ball, so it would have been an easier situation to deal with had a fan or marshal accidentally contacted the projectile.

The crime author deleted his original blog post and posted a follow up July 15 that says in part.

“Seems that Mr Poulter has disputed my account of our exchange yesterday. Now I’m having email abuse from pond life and bottom feeders. I don’t need that.”

“The only way I can get rid of it is by deleting the original post. In retrospect I should probably have kept the dispute private, but it’s out of the box now, and I must rely on the Tour to make a judgement.”

“Mr Poulter has gone public to his two million Twitter followers with his version of events. All I can say is that I stand by mine and at no time did I ever utter the words ‘OK thanks.’”

What do you think about this he-said, he-said, GolfWRX members?

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19th Hole

3-time PGA Tour winner calls for LIV to buy Champions Tour to fix ‘joke’ purses

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While speaking on the Subpar podcast, former PGA Tour winner and current PGA Tour Champions player Chris DiMarco said he hopes LIV buys the Champions Tour.

“We’re kind of hoping that LIV buys the Champions Tour,” he said.

“Let’s play for a little real money out here. I mean this is kind of a joke when we’re getting $2 million. There were like seven guys last week from TPC (Sawgrass, at the $25 million PLAYERS Championship) that made more money than our purses.”

In 2024, the Champions Tour had a total of $67 million in prize money over the course of 24 events.

DiMarco also defended LIV players for taking the money and said he would take it also.

“They wanted to play for a lot of money, and they deserve it. They have had some great careers, why not go and get some money?”

DiMarco also offered insight on Graeme McDowell’s move to LIV.

“I saw Graeme McDowell at the Old Memorial Pro Member, and he goes, ‘Listen, I went up to Jay Monahan and said I love the tour but I am struggling to keep my card and these guys are offering me all this money and less golf. I’m sorry, I’m going.’ And I do not blame him one bit, and I said I would have too.”

DiMarco was ranked as high as 6th in the world in 2006.

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19th Hole

‘It won’t win you golf tournaments’ – Golf analyst rips Charley Hull’s course management

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Charley Hull came just short of her third LPGA Tour victory over the weekend at the Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship when she played her last two holes at 3 over to slip all the way to 10th on the leaderboard.

After the round, Hull was blasted by Sky Sports commentator and former LPGA Tour player Trish Johnson for her lack of golf course management.

While speaking on the Sky Sports Golf podcast, Johnson spoke harshly of Hull.

“I’m probably her harshest critic, because I know how good she is. She doesn’t win anywhere near enough for her talent, and she doesn’t get involved enough, in all honestly.

“The thing with Charley is that you’re never going to change her. I read something the other day that said how much she loves the game and it’s her love of the game [that costs her]. She’s never going to change and she’s just going to go for every pin.

“In theory that’s great, but it won’t win you golf tournaments, it just won’t because she’s not that much better than anybody else. If you put Charley against Nelly Korda, then I’m picking Nelly every single day of the week.”

Johnson also made a fascinating comparison between Hull and a famous male golfer, John Daly.

“Golf-wise that’s the way she plays the game and it’s a little bit like watching John Daly I suppose.”

“There’s something that John Daly had that made him a major winner and a winner, but Charley is kind of lacking that. Her talent is not in question, but maybe her application is. Maybe it’s just the case of her never changing and that will cost her golf tournaments, there’s no two ways about it. You cannot go for every pin because that’s the way you play and it being fun, as other players are better than that and you have to have course management.”

Hull is still only 27, and therefore has plenty of time to work on her flaws to achieve the success her talent should allow.

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19th Hole

Former agent lifts lid on being fired by ‘zombie’ Tiger Woods

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Discussing his new book “Rainmaker” with the Daily Mail, Tiger Woods’ former agent, Hughes Norton, recounted the events leading up to and after his split with the 15-time major champion.

Norton was abruptly fired by Woods in 1998 after his 1997 Masters win and monster deal with Nike.

In the book, Norton talks about the way Tiger views his relationships, calling him a “zombie.”

The solace I can take, which doesn’t provide much, is this: He was an equal opportunity zombie with relationships, his swing coaches, his lawyer, the guy negotiated the IMG representation deal, with caddies, When it’s over, it’s over.”

Norton added:

“It is the way he terminates relationships with everyone. Whether it’s girlfriends, whether it’s his former golf coaches. It’s ironic, really. In a way he’s so good at confrontation on the golf course. If he’s playing you, he will beat your brains out every single time.

“But when it comes to confronting things like me and other people that are in his life, he has no social skills whatsoever. It’s maddening, actually.”

After he was fired by Woods, Norton was let go by IMG, which he believes was due to Woods’ influence.

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