Patrick Reed is not the villain of professional golf. In fact, I will go a step further and say Patrick Reed is a steward of the game. He’s exposing new people to golf. These viewers, hoping to see Reed using a foot wedge in action from behind a tree, or slipping a ball from his pocket after hitting a slicer into the thick stuff, were instead, confused and disappointed when they found out the scandal consisted of Reed poking grass and palming his ball.
Brandel Chamblee, a former PGA Tour pro, and current analyst for the Golf Channel was baffled by the ordeal:
"There are a great many rules, or should I say laws ... there are a great many things that are [not] illegal but are nonetheless unacceptable to do."
He goes on to talk about a code amongst players.
"There is an unwritten code that players adhere to around the golf ball which, in most cases, is obviates the necessity to have a rules official.”
Chamblee talks about this unwritten code that players follow on the tour. Which leads me to this question: should a professional sports organization, who hosts weekly tournaments where first place earns over a million dollars, place their faith in unwritten codes that leave players, officials, and fans in a queasy grey area? The short answer is obviously no.
If a player is contesting that their ball is embedded, and is requesting relief, there should be a rule, not an assumption, that the player should have to wait for a rules official to arrive, and the rules official should determine if the ball is embedded. It’s that simple. We don’t trust batters to call balls and strikes in baseball, we don’t trust basketball players to call their own fouls. So why are we leaving professional golfers to regulate themselves?
I understand golf is a game of integrity, but when you’re playing for 1,350,000.00, it’s no longer a game. Do you want to give your competitors the advantage of deciding for themselves if their ball is embedded and thus deserves to be moved? Of course not.
The USGA and PGA said Reed followed procedure by the book. If players and fans don’t like the outcome, then change the book.
Separately, Reed won by 5 strokes, he crushed the field, embedded ball scandal or not.
Ian Fleming’s James Bond is one of the most iconic movie characters of all time. His cool demeanor under the most dire of situations is almost laughable at moments. Some of his gadgets from “Q” – which is short for Quartermaster, a branch of the military responsible for supplies and logistics, etc.– are pretty laughable as well, especially in the pre Daniel Craig movies. Here are a few favorites: The Alligator submarine from “Octopussy”, the flamethrower bagpipes from “The World is Not Enough”, and my personal favorite, the boombox rocket launcher from “The Living Daylights”. Thankfully, we can always count on James Bond to wear a serious wrist watch. From Sean Connery’s Rolex Submariner in “Dr. No”, to Daniel Craig’s collection of Omega Seamasters, James Bond takes time very seriously. But if my line of work or hobbies consisted of continuous brushes with death, I would opt for the Breitling Emergency. A watch available to anyone, and equipped with a personal locator beacon.
The Emergency watch is made by Breitling. A Swiss watch company who have a particular talent for making chronograph watches. What is a chronograph watch? For the answer, I defer to Hespoke Style: “A chronograph watch is simply a timepiece that can be used as a stopwatch in addition to its standard display watch capabilities.” But the Emergency took that watch and asked, “What if I’m flying through mountains on my personal PJ and crash?”
Alas, I give you the The Emergency watch. The Emergency watch is a chronometer, meaning it's certified–after weeks of tests– by a board in Switzerland. What does this board test, you ask? They test watches in the most frigid and blistering conditions to see if they simply keep time within an extremely small margin of error. Second, the Emergency watch contains a personal locator beacon that can be activated at any time, anywhere in the world. Simply take off the watch, and unscrew the caps on both sides below the crown–this is where the James Bond stuff comes into play–Two antennas will pop out of the watch. One coming out the right side, and one coming out the left side. This automatically sends out a distress transmitter. This transmitter then starts to bounce off a network of satellites in Earth's lower orbit to help guide rescue teams to your location. While it's cool to nerd out about this, it’s even cooler to know it actually saves lives.
In 2012 a hunter was stranded in the Alaskan backcountry while hunting for Grizzly Bears. A scary situation, but extremely scary knowing that 2,000 people simply disappear in Alaska each year. The hunter had a hand held personal locator beacon, but it was showing his location to be four miles away from where he actually was. It wasn’t until he activated the beacon on his Breitling Emergency watch that rescue teams were able to zero in on his location and rescue him via helicopter. I think I’ll let James Bond keep the shaken martinis, Seamasters, and exploding toothpaste. If I’m ever in trouble, I want a Breitling Emergency on my wrist.
Click the video below to see how the beacon works.
It's starting to get cold and that's encouraging me to stay inside. It's also getting dark around 5:00 p.m. which is encouraging me to lobby for keeping day light saving times, instead of falling back every year and having to suffer 4:45 p.m. sunsets.
That said, I'm watching more movies. Christmas time always makes me feel nostalgic. I remember when I got shoulder surgery in high school during Christmas break, and my Dad and I watched Clint Eastwood western movies over and over and over again. Or at least I caught glimpses of them as I came in and out of consciousness due to the pain pills.
If you're tapped out on Elf and Rudolph, give these a go for a colorful Christmas showing.
