A player is responsible for vouching for the accuracy of the score he submits at the end of play. Happens at every level of competitive golf. Required in the Monday qualifier to get into the Waste Management, and Sony and John Deere Tour events, etc. Happens in the Texas State Amateur, etc. Happens next week in Kenya on the European Tour where they play for $2.5 million, but there is no real time shotlink data, and it is unlikely any walking scorekeepers speak the same language as all 3 players.
A different rule now needs to be carved out in the 35 or so of 43 or so PGA events and major championships that use shotlink technology, and television shows maybe 600 shots out of 30,000+ shots played by all competitors over their 8000+ holes?
Golf needs a system for the competitor to affirm their score, with consequences. Only the player and his caddie know with certainty whether his ball moved while moving a loose impediment, whether he had 15 clubs in his bag, whether he bent a tree branch during a practice swing, whether he grounded a club in a hazard (no longer applicable), whether he thought he was moving a stone in a hazard and it was just a clump of sand, whether his caddie laid down the bag as a directional marker, whether he brushed some loose sand off the fringe in his line of play when his ball was also on the fringe, etc., etc. Just scratching the surface.
Jordan was pissed and careless after finishing with a sloppy 6 while playing with the tournament leader that was 10 shots ahead of him. The reasons Roberto De Vicenzo and Jackie Pung and Jordan Spieth and many, many others had to accept a higher score, or received a DQ for a lower score, doesn’t change the purpose or importance of competitors signing their scorecard at every level of the game as an act of conscience where the integrity of the competition is important and the stakes are important. A DQ may be too harsh, but there need to be consequences. When you tell your fellow competitor you made a 7 on the next tee is not that moment of affirmation, when it turns out 3 holes later you honestly realize it was an 8 or a 6. That moment comes when you sign your scorecard, and with the further benefit of also leaving the scoring area, where they are there to assist you with your important job.
The stupidest thing in sports might be when someone on social media tries to make an analogy to what if a basketball player were required to know how many baskets he scored, when that sport requires refs and scorekeepers acting in the very moment to handle that task for him. The only analogy that works is why should there be or need to be a different rule than the one that exists in every high stakes competition these players have ever participated in.
GL