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Gwladys Nocera Gets Two-Stroke Penalty For Being Late at Suzhou-Taihu Ladies Open

She wasn’t disqualified however.

And in another development round one co-leader NOCERA, GWLADYS was penalised two strokes for reporting two minutes late to the starting tee on Friday’s opening round. Naturally, Nocera was fuming mad and did not even speak to her flight-mates CHUTICHAI, PORANI of Thailand and China’s YE, LI YING, while playing the second round today.Nocera

Nocera’s negative attitude raised eyebrows from her flight-mates and officials, when she even refused to talk to the Press and officials after completing her round. Nocera even questioned her round one marker Chutichai and asked her if it was she who complained to the officials about her late appearance to the tee box to start the first round.

“We never spoke at all after I had told her that I did not make the complaint when she questioned me. All I know is that she was late but I never made a complaint thinking that the officials there would have handled it,” said Thailand’s Chutichai Porani.

However, it was the other professional in the group ? China’s Ye Liying, who told Nocera that it was she who made the complaint.

“We play to competition rules. This is a tournament and all players should abide by the rules,” Ye said.- Ladies Asian Golf Tour

Pro golfers are supposed to know the rules and if they violate one, are supposed to take the appropriate action which can include penalizing themselves. It is also the duty of the players in a group to make sure everyone is following the rules.

For example- Three years ago Karrie Webb called out Annika Sorenstam at the 2006 LPGA for improperly repairing a divot. Go here if you would like to see video.

Note how Nocera wanted to know who reported her. I’d also point out that Annika was less than pleased with her being called out by another player in 2006.

“The Committee made a mistake by not imposing the penalty in round one but they can still correct the mistake before the start of round two. It would not result in disqualification because the player was unaware of the mistake and she was not informed at any time that she was late on the tee therefore we have corrected the score for round one and the Nocera’s 4-under 68 score becomes 2-under 70.”- Ladies Asian Golf Tour

Nocera should have been disqualified. I’m not saying this because of her reported rotten afterwards but because players are supposed to know the rules. Also there is more than ample precedent for players being disqualifed a day or two later, not just assessed a two-stroke penalty.

Craig Stadler at 1987 San Diego Open was ruled to have improperly built a stance when playing a shot during Saturday’s 3rd round. He wasn’t disqualified till 4th round play was complete and Stadler finished 2nd that particular week.

In 2005, Esteban Toledo and Brandel Chamblee were both disqualified for not penalizing themselves for taking improper drops and then signing their cards incorrectly by not showing the penalty strokes. This was a bit controversial because in both instances, the same PGA Tour player ratted them out told officials about the improper drops sometime after play was finished and all scorecards were signed.

There’s plenty of other cases I can cite as proof the officials in China didn’t rule correctly. Nocera didn’t put the penalty on her scorecard, therefore she signed a wrong scorecard and should have been disqualified as soon as this was discovered.

Hat tip- Waggleroom

 
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