Q Golf - Official online magazine for Golf Queensland Spring 2015 | Page 14

GOLF SPORTSMANSHIP
at its best

By Mark Hayes
Self-policing – it’s arguably the tradition and practice
that elevates golf above all its rivals.
That golfers at almost all levels willingly go out of their
way to penalise themselves for the slightest infraction
of the rules is something of which many other sports
can only dream.

There were probably 25 people, including myself and
Courier-Mail golf writer Jim Tucker, in easy viewing
distance of Blizard’s actions. It would not have surprised
had none of them seen his ball move as the twigs were
scattered.

That it happens at the height of professional battle is
not only an eye-opener to outsiders, but so engrained
is it in the golf community that it raises eyebrows more
when it doesn’t happen than when it does.

The black line marking the 2007 Australian Amateur
champion’s ball was the only real indicator the ball had
edged — possibly two-tenths of one millimetre – in one
direction before coming back to rest almost precisely its
previous position. Had you blinked, you’d have missed
it. For sure.

A great new addition to the deep annals of golf
sportsmanship came recently at the Isuzu Queensland
Open when Sydneysider Rohan Blizard did what came
completely naturally, even though it MIGHT have cost
him the title.

But no sooner had it come to rest that Blizard ratted
himself out. Instantly, and without one thought for his
position in such a prestigious event, he called for PGA
Tour rules official Russell Swanson to come and officially
assign the penalty.

It’s important that distinction on “might” is made
because there’s no way of knowing what would have
unfolded from either player after Blizard and eventual
champion David Bransdon knuckled down for a
memorable shootout at Brookwater that took three
extra holes to finalise.

“Yep, sorry Rohan, that’s a shot penalty if your actions
made it move,” Swanson almost apologetically told
the leader.

But the most important thing is that Blizard’s actions
meant nothing else was on either player’s mind; that
their enthralling battle was as pure for them as the large
and appreciative gallery that witnessed it.
The moment itself was simple. The slightly built New
South Welshman made a rare mistake and carved his
tee shot on the par-four 12th into the rough right of
the fairway, just a metre or two inside the cart path
and, despite his ball nestling down in twigs and leaves,
within easy viewing distance of fans following his
final group.
In fact, it turned out that it had come to rest at the base
of a stump of a tree that had been cut down, so clearing
the loose impediments around the ball was going to be
critical to Blizard, at the time a two-stroke leader, to
gauge his swing path back to the short grass.

14 Q Golf Spring 2015

www.golfqueensland.org.au

“No worries `Swanno’. It’s my fault, not a problem,”
came the instant reply.
And that was it. No angst, no verbal tirades, nothing
but clear respect for the game and i