Golf: No repeat of TV replay trial, says Peter Whiteford

LUNCHTIME business is brisk in the restaurant at Wellsgreen Golf Range, which sits off the quaintly-named Standing Stane Road between Kirkcaldy and Windygates, a mile or two inland from the Fife coast. Yet, not a single head is turned when Peter Whiteford walks into the room.

Perhaps people are used to seeing him there. After all, his family own and run it. Dad Bill came up with the idea for a driving range, a splendid six-hole course and other accoutrements when he decided it was time to diversify from farming. Today Peter’s elder brother, Stewart, runs the excellent facility.

The lack of any fuss was also a sign, however, that people know Whiteford, a laid-back type, was an innocent party in the latest incident that has brought golf’s rules into the spotlight again and given him worldwide publicity he’d gladly have avoided.

Chasing his maiden win on the European Tour, the 31-year-old was just one shot off the lead heading into the final round of the Avantha Masters, a £1.5 million event in India, last Sunday, only to find himself being driven off the course in New Dehli on a buggy by a rules official after being disqualified.

That followed an incident at the 18th hole the previous afternoon in his third round, when slow-motion television pictures showed his ball had moved a fraction, something that was picked up by some armchair viewers as they watched the highlights at home on Saturday night. They contacted the European Tour and, due to the fact he’d effectively signed for a wrong score, Whiteford’s fate was sealed, even though he had made no intentional attempt to gain anything from the situation. “That isn’t even in the discussion,” he declared in recalling the worst few hours in his golfing career.

He asked his caddie, one of his playing partners and a TV cameraman if they thought the ball had moved. They all said ‘no’. The mistake he made before signing that scorecard was not asking a referee to review the incident on television. But, when you’re not used to being in the final group and having loads of cameras focussing on you, it’s easy to understand why he didn’t think about that instantly.

“At the time, I did everything I felt I could,” he told The Scotsman. “I wasn’t looking down at the ball when it moved so how was I suppose to know? I didn’t know. And, obviously, I didn’t think it had moved. But, in hindsight, it was my fault for not getting the referee involved.”

Over dinner on Saturday night with some of his fellow players, Whiteford openly discussed the incident, oblivious to either emails or tweets being sent to the European Tour.

It was only when he arrived back at the course the following morning that he was made aware that he’d been reported by the armchair cops. Even then, he didn’t see a disqualification coming at first.

“On Sunday morning I spoke to [chief referee] John Paramor and he was showing me some of the comments that had come in and said that he’d replied along the lines of ‘thanks for your support of the Tour, we’ve had a look at it and everything is ok’.” It was only after Paramor, having initially taken a “quick glance”, then looked at the footage from “a different angle” that he decided he needed to take action.

“As soon as I heard that, I knew something was going to happen,” said the Scot, who was told of his disqualification just after he played the third hole. In a flash, his name disappeared from near the top of the leaderboard to the very bottom with the letters ‘DQ’ against it. That hurt more than anything he’s ever felt in golf before.

“As my caddie and I sat shocked in the clubhouse, we were watching the golf on television and my name kept coming up with DQ next to it. That was far more horrible than the situation that got me there, as it just doesn’t look good.”

Over the past few days, he has received a flood of text messages offering sympathy. Many have also been critical of the people who used a veil of anonymity to get him disqualified. Yet, in exactly the same way he handled the disqualification when it happened, Whiteford showed some class when asked what he might say to those individuals if he ever meets them face-to-face.

“I have no hard feelings towards those people,” he insisted. “At the end of the day, they are golf fans and without them we wouldn’t be playing for the money we are today. Hopefully, next time I won’t give anybody a reason to call in.”

A lesson learned then? “There was very little to learn, to be honest,” he added. “But it was a harsh way to learn a little thing. If I’d been in the middle of the field with no cameras, nothing would have happened because I didn’t think the ball had moved. But, if there are cameras on your group and something like that happens, I now know to get the referee involved. It was quite an easy mistake to make when you are not used to being in a TV group.”

Whiteford hopes to be in contention again soon but, as luck would have it, the European Tour has entered a break, which means he won’t be teeing up again competitively until the Andalucian Open – where he finished second behind Louis Oosthuizen two years ago – in the middle of next month.

“It’s onwards and upwards hopefully. I’m looking forward to it being yesterday’s news,” he admitted. “I just have to try to forget about it. Hopefully it won’t be the last time I’m challenging on the last day. If I didn’t think that was the case, I would be more worried about that than what happened in India.”

Instead of being well on the way towards seeing his card secured for another season – the Indian event carried a purse not far behind those on offer in the Middle East Swing – Whiteford is sitting 148th in this season’s Race to Dubai, having now gone three events in a row without banking a cheque. Last year he finished a career-best 63rd on the money-list, having chalked up five top 10s, including third in the Alfred Dunhill Championship in South Africa. He shared the halfway lead in the Scottish Open at Castle Stuart before slipping to 31st after a closing 73.

“No matter how well you do the previous season, you still come out the next year looking to get off to a fast start. And that [a decent cheque] could have taken a monkey off my back,” noted the three-timeS Challenge Tour winner. “Even if I hadn’t won it, I could have gone a long way to securing my card for next season. You try not to think about these things but it’s always in the back of your mind.

“But I led for two rounds and still wasn’t far off the lead going into the last round. Those are the positives I will be taking from last week.

“This is my third year in a row on the main Tour and I’m comfortable there now, both with my surroundings and also the courses we play.”

Happily, Whiteford has also retained his sense of humour despite the disqualification. “I’ve got some publicity out of it. I suppose it’s not all that bad,” he said, with a hint of laughter.