Not letting matter drop was OK, waiting wasn't

Having stood near Michael Bamberger Saturday morning as we watched Michelle Wie take her now-infamous drop after an unplayable lie in the Samsung World Championship at Bighorn Golf Club in Palm Desert, Calif., I feel qualified to comment. From my perspective, it never should have been the story it has turned out to be.

After Wie and her playing competitor, Grace Park, left the seventh green for the eighth tee, I spent several minutes talking with Bamberger, a writer for Sports Illustrated. He studied the bush in which Wie's ball had been found after an errant second shot at the par-5 hole and he tossed down his sunglasses on the spot from where he claims the teenager had eventually played. His initial reaction was that she had dropped the ball closer to the hole. It was a crude look, but I didn't disagree with him, but neither could I be sure. First of all, no one can say for certain where in the bush the ball was lodged. Second, we were talking inches in a distance that was perhaps 25-30 yards.

Bamberger -- a colleague I've come to know and respect -- was clearly concerned. What I wanted to say to him then was, ''You obviously are assuming a responsibility here that the landscape affords you, but with that responsibility comes an obligation to do so swiftly. You can't have one without the other. This is someone's livelihood you're messing with." No matter that the player in question was the newest rage in golf; I would have felt the same way had it been Marisa Baena or Jeong Jang. Oh, how I regret not saying that, though I'm not sure Bamberger would have acted any differently, and for those who missed the story, here is what he did:

After Wie and Park left the seventh green, Bamberger stayed behind. He said he marked off the yardage, and given the fact that Bamberger was a former caddie on the American and European PGA tours, I don't doubt that he was accurate. He was fairly certain Wie's drop had moved the ball closer to the hole. Here, he had crossed the line from reporter to rules official, and while that is OK, I guess, it's disturbing that he then crossed back into his role of reporter so casually. He questioned Wie about the drop in a post-round press conference and when she didn't convince him that she had determined without doubt that she hadn't dropped closer, Bamberger felt even more uncomfortable. He said he wrestled with his emotions, talked to his boss, and slept poorly. The next morning, knowing that any action he would take could result in Wie's disqualification, Bamberger stepped off the yardage again, then late in the day he notified a tournament rules official, Robert Smith, of his concern.

By now, Wie was well into her fourth round, but after she had signed for a 74 Sunday to apparently finish fourth and earn $53,126, Smith -- after being approached by Bamberger -- brought her back to the seventh hole. After an investigation that took more than 90 minutes, Smith ruled that Wie had dropped closer to the hole, perhaps by 12-18 inches. That's a two-shot penalty, but since Wie didn't know of the infraction, she obviously didn't tack on the shots, and that led to her signing an incorrect scorecard on Saturday.

Goodbye cash, hello disqualification, and let the debate begin.

Did Bamberger overstep his boundaries and violate an unwritten, but absolute rule of our profession (report the news, don't make it)? In a game devoid of umpires, referees, and line judges, is it OK for patrons, television viewers, and even journalists to get involved and play rules official? Bamberger has received plenty of criticism and enough support to tell you there's strong sentiment on both sides, but from where I sit, he was wrong -- not to question Wie's drop, because I respect his intentions, but to be so slow in calling it that it resulted in disqualification. He crossed the line from reporting the news to making the news, and that's disturbing.

During the entire episode, phrases such as ''the integrity of the game" and ''protecting the field" were bandied about, and PGA Tour player Brad Faxon, for one, came away disappointed. ''Those are crutches," said Faxon. ''This waiting a day was wrong."

Faxon wasn't the only player who said he felt Bamberger made a terrible mistake by waiting so long, and thus brought DQ into the equation. ''That's too severe a penalty for what happened, and he knows better than that," said Faxon.

I agree.

I was bothered more by Park's inaction. It is her job -- not mine, not Bamberger's -- to ''protect the field," as they say, and had she done the professional thing and walked over to approve or disapprove of Wie's drop, this mess could have been avoided. But Park stayed on the green, some 30 yards away, and simply acknowledged that it was OK with her that Wie was taking an unplayable.

Bamberger said he delayed because he was trying to be sure, but this wasn't a murder case in which 12 jurors had to agree; he simply had to get one rules official to take a look. I'm convinced that within an hour of the incident, Bamberger could have had Smith do just that. It would have been the prudent route to take. Wie more than likely would have been penalized, as she probably deserved to be, but not disqualified, which she should not have been.

Heck, Bamberger could have even gone and written the story (SI editors chose not to run his first-person account) and not turned into the story.