Cordevalle deserved better than the finish it got on Sunday to close out the 2016 U.S. Women’s Open.
The course was a fantastic host to the premier women’s major golf tournament, giving fans a little of everything.
We had fantastic golf, the course was beautiful and there was drama in each of the four days from the players.
Then came the three-hole playoff for the title and it was coming down to the green: Would someone win? Would it go on to another round of playoffs? Would there be a heartbreaking mistake?
Nope.
Fox Sports called down to the USGA officials to announce that Anna Nordqvist had grounded her club … technically … barely.
Her club grazed (and that’s being generous) a few grains of sand as she drew it back to begin her swing in the bunker on the 17th fairway.
Really it was a crumb of sand that moved and it cost her the championship.
Compounding the disaster for the USGA, the rules officials didn’t see the infraction right away on their own replay so they went to the TV truck to see more views and eventually found Nordqvist had a breach of the rules.
By the time they did all of that, both golfers were well onto the 18th hole, with Nordqvist hitting her third shot onto the green and Brittany Lang preparing to hit her third.
That’s when they told them both.
When there was zero that Nordqvist could do to possibly save her chance at a championship and allowed Lang an opportunity to change her shot and play more conservatively.
“With all the cameras and all the tension, you would figure that they would have told me like even just when it happened or when we were walking up 17,” Nordqvist said. “And certainly not after I hit my third shot in, and before she hit her third shot. Because it certainly changed her game plan.”
Was it so impossible to stop the players at the 18th tee, tell them there might be a problem that needs to be investigated and made sure they knew what was going on before the final hole was played?
Forgetting for a minute that the USGA doesn’t see that violation without a zoomed in look at a high definition video, Nordqvist deserved the right to know that she had a penalty before.
The USGA made a big production out of announcing they got the information to the golfers as fast as they possibly could, which happened to be too late.
Lang defended the USGA while also feeling bad for Nordqvist.
“I think the USGA did the best they could do. Before they looked at the TVs and found out what had happened, I think they handled it in a timely manner,” Lang said. “I think they would have told Anna had they known before. But I think they waited to look at the video and then confirm it.”
The USGA really should have learned from the Dustin Johnson debacle when they wouldn’t say if he was going to be assessed a penalty until after he finished his final round in the U.S. Open.
But they got bailed out by the fact that Johnson won by more than one stroke, so maybe they didn’t think too hard about championship altering decisions.
This needs to change.
And what else needs to change is how they review calls on the course
“I mean, we have it in every other sport. Why not? Sure. Why not?” Lang said of the use of replay in golf.
Here’s the thing, in what other sport can the broadcaster call officials to alert them to a mistake in enforcing the rules?
In all four major U.S. sports, no one from the outside has the right to question a call while the game is being played. Broadcasters second guess and ask questions all the time … AFTER THE GAME IS OVER.
Why does golf let this happen? Fox Sports cost Lundvist a chance at a championship because it pointed out a mistake while the round was still going.
The USGA cost Nordqvist a chance at a championship because it allowed Fox to call in during the round and because it took way too long to make a decision.
All of this is now what the 2016 U.S. Women’s Open will be remembered for and that’s a travesty for Cordevalle.
Four days of fantastic golf on a beautiful course that was a beautiful host and was so different day-to-day that provided beautiful drama.
The USGA and Fox robbed Cordevalle its chance in the world’s spotlight.
