By Tom Lang
In a response to growing concern over high school golfers occasionally not recording accurate scores – sometimes due to not properly interpreting the rules and sometimes what has the appearance of scoring deception – a new pilot program recommendation in early December by the MHSAA Golf Committee will begin with the 2019 boys’ golf spring season to test if it should be adopted full-time.
The power to help maintain integrity in the game will still be in the players’ hands – literally.
As a normal rule, cell phones are not allowed for use on the course during MHSAA competitions. But the pilot program, which schools and regular-season tournaments can try in spring 2019, would allow cell phone use in four instances; the most prominent one being use of a cell phone app called iWanamaker. The app allows players to each post their scores in real time as they play, which then allows tournament officials and the general public see the progress of the event well before it’s over. 
“Making scores public makes it available for all to see, for all to look at and for all to make sure that what is being put in the system actually is what the kids are shooting,” said Cody Inglis of the MHSAA. “If a kid is scoring out of his mind, then you can bet the they will attract more attention and eyeballs on them.”
In most cases, high school tournament and league scores are not available during a normal round. It’s typically not until reaching the state finals, where adult markers are also in place, that volunteers collect and post Internet scores once every three holes.
The Division 1 boys regional conducted in late May, 2018, continues to make national news, clearly pushed this measure – in some minds as the most glaring example of an overdue, needed correction.
“The players will now be monitored by using their phones to input scores in real time,” commented Robert McIntyre, head coach at 2018 state champ Grosse Pointe South. “Any coach now has the ability to move to a hole and start counting strokes if something seems ‘fishy.’ Is this really the plan? Is this the message that we want to teach these players? Do what is right because Big Brother is watching?
“Golf is a game of integrity,” he added. “It is the players’ responsibility to officiate themselves. It is the player that is put to the decision to use the ‘foot wedge’ when nobody is looking, or to forget about that extra stroke. It is choices made at these moments that demonstrate character and integrity.”
According to the Minutes of the Dec. 5 meeting of the MHSAA Golf Committee, most of the committee’s discussion was about strengthening coaches’ education with their players as the key factor in helping solve this issue. Stronger wording in tournament manuals and pre-tournament coaches’ meetings will place a sturdier emphasis on each coach’s role and duties in accurate scoring.
The Minutes report also says that a new scorecard will be utilized at all Regionals and Finals venues where every player must ‘mark’ every other player in their playing group – not just one player tracking one other player.
The other three reasons that cell phone use on the course will be recommended to the MHSAA’s Representative Council in May are: calling a coach or tournament administration for a health or safety issue; contacting a rules official; and use as a distance measuring device – all which are legal by the USGA.
If the Representative Council agrees to the changes they would be instituted permanently beginning in the fall of 2019.
