Camilo Villegas began his 2011 PGA
Tour season with a DQ in Hawaii.
Rules Breach Bites Villegas
KAPALUA, HAWAII | The new season
began much as the old one ended
– with a rules controversy. Camilo
Villegas was disqualified after the first
round of the Hyundai Tournament of
Champions after a rules infraction that
was Tweeted by a television viewer.
Villegas was chipping to the 15th
green when his ball came back down
the slope to his feet. Before the ball arrived, Villegas took his club and raked
away some remnants of a divot that
might be in the path of the ball. It was
a clear violation of Rule 23-1, which
states that a player cannot move loose
impediments that might be in the path
of the ball while the ball is in motion.
Late Thursday night, PGA Tour officials picked up on the Tweet. Villegas
was brought into Golf Channel’s truck
on Friday morning to see the videotape
and was disqualified as a result. To
make matters worse, Friday was
Villegas’ 29th birthday.
Two-time defending Hyundai cham-
pion Geoff Ogilvy was on property but
didn’t even tee it up on Thursday after a
minor swimming mishap took him out
of the tournament. Ogilvy cut the index
finger on his right hand on a piece of
coral, an injury that required 12 stitch-
es. A doctor double stitched part of the
area in an effort to get Ogilvy in a condi-
tion to play, but he couldn’t grip a club.
job. I’d certainly rather play than watch.”
The surprise winner of the Frys.com
Open last October took his place in the
Kapalua lineup where three of last year’s
major winners didn’t. Which hardly fitted
the grand platitudes from leading players
about their responsbility to sponsors in
these recessionary times. Family com-
mitments early in the New Year seem to
override all other considerations.
In this context, it is interesting to note
the record of Jack Nicklaus, a noted
family man, in this particular tournament. In the 23 years from his debut in
1963 and his swan song in 1985, Nicklaus
missed the event only five times. And on
three of those occasions – 1980, 1982 and
1984 – he didn’t qualify. Which means
that he opted out only twice, in 1968 and
1976. His successors on Tour clearly have
much to learn from the Golden Bear.
“I’m not the biggest fan of (Royal)
St. George’s to be honest. It’s a good
golf course and that’s all I’d say.” – Ian
Poulter, damning this year’s notori-
ously quirky British Open venue with
extremely faint praise.
The senior publicist with EA (Elec-
tronic Arts) was gentle but firm. “It’s our
company policy that we don’t comment
on our contractual arrangements,” said
Katherine Coulthard, Tuesday, at the
launch in Kapalua of “Tiger Woods PGA
Tour 12: The Masters.”
But we can assume that Augusta
National doesn’t come cheaply. Mean-
while, she did divulge that product sales
have surpassed 25 million since their
arrangement with Woods was made
in 1998. At a unit cost of $59.99 for the
Xbox version of this latest product, that
works out at close on $1.5 billion. And
even allowing for cheaper versions and
lower prices over the years, these video
games are obviously very big business.
“Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters” will be in shops in early April. l
