How a towel got this golfer disqualified | Weird Rules

A professional golfer nicknamed “The Walrus” lost out on $37,000 because of one bizarre, arbitrary rule that he didn’t even realize he committed. But don’t worry, there were MULTIPLE stupid rules in play to disqualify him and his incredible mustache.

[brucekish]

Two footnotes -- years later when that same tree became diseased, Stadler was invited to cut it down with a chainsaw, making a great photo op; and, the 2019 golf rules revisions no longer allow tv views to call in penalties.

[MoniBolis]

Seems unfair. They accept calls but they couldn't send a message to him letting know he had a penalty. Good video

[christopherg]

The insane part was:
- he had no idea it was a rules violation.
- he was surrounded by a lot of reporters and other players and none of _them_ suspected it was a rules violation
- he was never informed someone had phoned in a possible rules violation
Yet it still got him disqualified.
This setup incentivises:
- never mentioning anyones mistake before they make their scorecards
- hiring people to watch the life transmission to watch out for your enemies rules violations to get them disqualified

[Mr_Jish]

Interesting guy, that Craig Stadler. Not only was he an incredibly accomplished tour golfer himself (he won The Masters '82), but one of his sons is also a pro golfer who is the same height and build. They nicknamed him 'The Smallrus'; that is not a joke.

[drummer]

That was a strike, I saw it on the box they put on the screen 😂😂

[BenjaminKassel]

Stadler was a Masters champion (1982). He was a solid golfer.

[RedrunLoL]

You're telling me somebody was actually watching golf on their tv? That seems like the most incredible thing on this whole video.

[blubasaur]

Now here’s a question. Would it be a rules violation if a person had prosthetic legs/arms?

[ajm]

What if it was Stadler's caddy who gave him the towel, AND MADE THE PHONE CALL?!

Dun dun

[brixiu]

I love this series. Wish it could come back.

[Strype]

During my sophomore year in high school, I stole a laptop from the computer lab to help me write an English paper. I was planning on returning it the following week, but I began hearing rumors that the lab teacher wanted to press charges against whoever took it, so I got scared and hid it in my attic. On the very last day of my senior year, during lunch, I snuck into the lab and left the laptop exactly where I had found it more than 2 years prior with a sticky note that simply said, "Thanks!" signed with my initials. I often wonder if they had somebody thumb through the yearbook and develop a "suspect list" based on my initials... but I guess I'll never know.

[tchevrier]

I remember actually watching that round.
1) Stadler was not a fashion plate.
2) it was actually very common back then for people to call in penalties. I guess the actual officials were kind of useless.
3) it was really stupid to allow phone in penalties

[wisdomcube]

Not sure if anyone mentioned this but 8 years later that tree was dying so they invited Stadler to come to the course and cut it down. He accepted and finally put the incident to rest.

[Ad_Asterisk]

I love Jon Bois, but I think SB nation makes a lot of other really good content, and it can't feel good for these video producers to post a video they worked hard on and just hear back "where's Jon?"

[willbuikema]

I too am human viewer definitely not Ryan Simmons who finds many enjoyment in this video, fun!

[CadChamberlain]

Make a video on the NFL rule that allows a free-kick

[CodyWelter]

With much regret, I confess while at work, I microwaved my spaghetti without the lid and failed to clean up any residual splatter it may have caused.

Isn't there a rule regarding a 1-point play in the NFL? Like a returned-PAT-fumble-safety situation or something?

[dfuchs]

In football (or soccer if you prefer) it's actually quiet common to replace a injured referee with someone from the audience. In Germany a referee can attend any game free of charge as long as the stadium is not completely booked. He just has to show his or her referee ID. So the actual referee got injured all referees will be asked to meet at a location and a new referee will be picked.

[Dankmus]

Dang man this video was edited beautifully!

[mholtebeck]

I think this was the first case of video rules violations, and it took a long time for golf to fix some of these rules. There was a Masters where Tiger Woods hit the flagstick and deflected into a pond (15th hole). Somebody watched and thought he didn't take a proper drop- assessed 2 strokes, But he signed his score card for a score less than that- so DQ'd. But they just changed the rule to allow for that situation to be corrected. Nobody wanted to lose Tiger in a tournament, so it turned out to be good for everybody.