Golfer banned for 3 months

Taken from bbc website

 

Elliot Saltman has been banned from golf for three months after being found guilty of a "serious breach" of regulations at a Challenge Tour event.

The Scottish golfer is accused of marking his ball incorrectly during the first round of the Russian Challenge Cup in September.

The 28-year-old was disqualified from the event and attended a disciplinary hearing in Abu Dhabi on Monday.

Saltman has 28 days to appeal against the European Tour's suspension.

A statement from the European Tour read: "The committee unanimously found that Elliot Saltman had committed a serious breach of the 2010 Challenge Tour Members Regulations during the first round of the Russian Challenge Cup.

  I accepted what was said at the time [in Moscow] because I was in shock and I didn't want to be labelled a cheat. I am sorry now that I didn't stand up for myself   Elliot Saltman

"It was the finding of the Tournament Committee that Elliot Saltman, who was disqualified from the Russian Challenge Cup, be suspended from participating in all European Tour and Challenge Tour sanctioned tournaments for a period of three months, starting on 19 January, 2011.

"Under Challenge Tour regulations Elliot Saltman, who attended the disciplinary hearing in Abu Dhabi, has the right to lodge an appeal before the board of The European Tour. This appeal must be lodged within 28 days."

Speaking after winning his Tour card at the qualifying school in Spain last month, Saltman said: "I accepted what was said at the time [in Moscow] because I was in shock at the time and I didn't want to be labelled a cheat.

"I am sorry now that I didn't stand up for myself."

Edinburgh-born Saltman is the first player to be prevented from playing on the European Tour since Sweden's Johan Tumba, who was banned for 10 years in 1992 after altering his scorecard at the qualifying school.

 

But what did he do?  Had a look at various links and all it says is that he marked his ball incorrectly.  Marked as in scribbled on it?  Moved his marker on the green?  Marked it through a leaf in a bunke...oops. 

Seeing this got me scrambling for more information that is not available at the moment.

Using the word "cheat" in the articles has to mean a serious offence. Professional Golfers have a set way to 'Mark' a ball on the putting green and will be fined if they don't adhere to it, so to be DQ'd then and banned now must point to a major breach. A ball must not have been put back where it was lifted from, by some distance.

It is almost impossible to replace a ball on the exact spot it is lifted from but who can tell if it is a mm away? For both his fellow competitors to notice something FIVE times in 18holes, it must be something serious.

TheLyth

I would have thought that it's completely impossible to replace your ball exactly where it was picked from, but for the purposes of this close enough is good enough.  So, as you say Lyth,  if it was for this how far was he moving it?  Was he doing the old 'mark in front, replace behind' trick that one of my playing partners used to do?

Need more info... 

don't quote me but something about location of marking and placement.

not saying in the instance but for example have you seen a player marker behind a ball then place the ball in front of the marker ?  I know I have and picked them up for it !

It would be nice to know what actuallly happened? Seems very strange must be a serious breach of the rules.

Apparently we had a very good player at Sherfield who always marked to the side and then replaced in front. I have never witnessed it but I have been told about it. Shame as he is one great striker of a golf ball.

Here's my new ball marker

All this to gain litteraly 1 inch on the hole. I know people that dont count air shots, forget how many shots they have taken, Dont count gimmees ( on occations ). And this bloke trys to gain 1 inch on the green without being noticed. If its true, what a walley.

Dave CAC handed Geordie.

I read that it was the other players in his group that were so incensed by this that they refused to sign his card. It must have been something significant for them to get so worked up about it. And for the European tour to hand out a 3-month ban you would think they had some compelling evidence, although no video evidence was available.

Read an interesting article on BBC about this...

(http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/iaincarter/2011/01/saltmans_ban_highlights_discip.html)

...and the fact that the game is still really referreed by fellow competitors. Also interesting in that the European tour do not seem to have a formal procedure to deal with such incidents.

I very much doubt he put his ball too far away from the original place.

I find it very harsh to ban someone for that amount of time for something so trivial.

He has only just got his card, and with a 3 month ban will find it a lot harder to keep it.

Typical of some of the dinosaur rules in golf today.

Maybe a 1 or 2 tournament ban would be suffice.

Lets not forget, Golfers are well known not to be cheats, and  i could not name any that have deliberately cheated previously. { not of the top off my head any way.}

Vaguely remember a golfer who either got fined or banned for marking his ball and as he lifted the ball he kind of flicked the marker so it slid closer to the hole. Could be something like this I suppose.

im not trying to defend him but the distance between marking your ball at 8'oclock and 6'oclock is very negligable, yes i know it is still moving the placement of the ball but he is not exactly gaining much of an advantage, totally stupid on his behalf really.

about 15 years ago i was too accused of something very similar to this, something i might add i was unaware i was actually doing it. but since which i have taken every effort to make sure te ball gets back to as close as possible to its original position.

maybe his playing partners should have said something as soon as they witnessed the  first infringment ( i know a few people who would have said something straight away) rather than waiting till the fifth, but untill we all know the whole truth then we are just speculating

Cast your mind back to the Race to Dubai finale when Poults was in the play-off & he accidently dropped his ball onto his marker thus moving it. This mistake cost him the win (my opinion) & a bucket load of cash.

How you can not know where you marked your ball, in most cases your placing it back within seconds, really astounds me!

Marking it at 6'o clock & placing it back at 8'o clock may seem neglible BUT if it improves your line of putt, i.e taking a spike mark out of your line then it's cheating.

Sanders,

You said "I never saw anyone cheat in the 1960s."

But, you never had a bad lie or lost a ball with a 'good' Caddie?

TheLyth

Sanders,

In the 60's there wasn't slow mo HD footage

Can't imagine you stood on the golf course in your string vest!! http://www.golfshake.com/scripts/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/regular_smile.gif" title="smiley" />

Sanders,

Back in the 60's & 70's, caddies were paid a basic fee and made their money from 'tips'. If their Man won, they had more chance of a bigger pay day. You will see them scurry off ahead in a lot of old films and they always got to their Mans ball before him.

A famous incident in 1974 at Royal Lytham suggests that a Caddie aided his player in a way he shouldn't. No proof was available, but even the player thought it may be true. The truth has gone to the grave with the Caddie. TV pictures (1970's quality) seems to show the ball enter the rough in a different location to where it was found.

Golf evolved mainly as Match-Play so 'tricks' were used in order to win. Do you think those 'tricks' disappeared over-night when Stroke-Play became the main format?

TheLyth