In the movie The Legend of Bagger Vance, a little boy named “Hardy Greaves” sits on a bench and explains to his hero, the cynical, washed-up “Randolph Junah,” why golf is “the greatest game there is.” After listing a few of golf’s unique traits, Hardy adds:
“It’s the only game I know where you can call a penalty on yourself. If you’re honest. Which most people are!”
Junah, a fictional character played by Matt Damon, is fumbling his way through a three-man exhibition against two characters who were actual golf champions in the 1920s and 30s: Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen.
Later in the movie, when Junah has climbed back into the match, he calls a penalty on himself after accidentally moving the ball with his club — by millimeters. Hardy is crushed, and pleads with Junah not to call the two-shot penalty on himself. They have come too far. Through tears, he implores Junah:
“No! No! Don’t do it! Please don’t do it. Only you and me seen it. And I won’t tell a soul. I promise. Nobody will know.”
With a sad frown, Junah says: “I will, Hardy. And so will you.”
Golf is known as “the gentleman’s game.” But any pro sport is only as classy as its competitors. Being a golf nerd, I’ve always assumed that the plot twist in the movie came from the non-fictional event in that era when the legendary Bobby Jones called a two-shot penalty on himself in the 1925 U.S. Open.
In general, golfers calling penalties on themselves is not unusual — but they don’t always do it. The sport is a metaphor for life itself. Like Hardy said, it’s the players themselves who are the referees. And the rules of golf can be complicated; I don’t know a single player who’s known how to apply them properly in every single situation. Even at a single golf club, there will be hundreds of rules applications in a day.
On the PGA Tour, it’s much the same, except there are rules officials all over the place. These guys are ready for anything, though most of the time, the players know what to do. Earlier this year, the Chief Governance Officer of the USGA, Thomas Pagel, described it like this:
“You know the rules officials’ mantra. It’s hours of boredom with moments of sheer terror.”
A big part of that “terror” most certainly has to do with the enormous amounts of money that PGA players compete for these days. It’s not that this didn’t matter in eras past, as golfers, unlike team athletes, have no contracts. They eat only what they kill. If you don’t excel, you don’t stay on Tour. And most of the up-and-comers are financially sponsored by friendly individuals — long before they’re good enough to get a dollar of endorsement money (which takes excelling).
Last weekend, a PGA player did something quite ordinary — that turned out to be extraordinary — because it was extraordinarily costly.
During the dramatic, season-ending Tour Championship that would determine the coveted Fedex Cup Winner, a 27-year-old named Sahith Theegalia called a “Junah” on himself. In contention during the third of four rounds, the California native — who has won just once since being on Tour — called a two-shot penalty on himself for a potential infraction that no one else even noticed. Theegalia himself wasn’t even sure that his own eyes were telling the truth.
It happened in a fairway bunker on the third hole. Theegalia hit a 150-yard shot onto the green to about 40 feet from the pin. But after he hit the shot, he immediately told his playing partner, Xander Schauffele, that he thought he nicked a touch of sand before he drew his club back. The two players didn’t think it was a violation because the ball hadn’t moved and there was no intent.
But after he two-putted for par, Theegalia called over rules official Mike Stiller and explained the situation. Stiller said that the grazing of the sand was indeed a violation of Rule 12.2. If Theegalia had touched the sand there, then he had technically changed the lie of the play of the ball (for a real headache, read Rule 12.2).
Even after replaying the video several times, the announcers couldn’t discern the contact with the sand. NBC’s Kevin Kisner said to his broadcast partner Dan Hicks: “Wow, I don’t see much there, Dan.”
But it didn’t matter. A two-shot penalty was assessed. And those two shots cost Sahith Theegalia $2.5 million.
Amazingly, after that crazy mental disruption, Theegalia went on to make five more birdies in the third round to shoot 66. He followed up on Sunday with a brilliant 64, placing him third in the championship — two shots out of second place.
To be clear, Theegalia’s third place finish in the biggest prize money event of the year earned him $7.5 million. For over 95% of the players on Tour, this is a dream payout. Theegalia’s going to be okay. But $2.5 million is $2.5 million, and when he called the penalty on himself, he was 33 holes away from the finish line. Anything could have happened.
For Theegalia, it was a simple decision. He knew the game and he knew himself:
“It’s a tough pill to swallow. But the rules of golf are the rules of golf. I think it’s a rule that seems a little silly to lose two shots on a thing like that, but…I wouldn’t be able to sleep.”
The author Charles Marshall once wrote: “Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is looking.”
The former publisher of The Washington Post, Donald Graham, once said: “At the end of the day, people with integrity have one thing in common: they sleep well.”
Sahith Theegalia should be well-rested for the start of next season.