Golf's Got Gallery of Busybodies Sitting in Their Living Rooms

Another golf season is upon us and all the Gladys Kravitzes of the world are about to spring out from their collective winter slumbers.

Surely, you remember Gladys Kravitz, the nosy next-door neighbor from the sitcom "Bewitched," who always seemed to catch Samantha Stevens in the act of twitching her nose and producing an elephant out of thin air. Alas, poor Gladys could never convince her long-suffering husband Abner, or anyone else for that matter, that Samantha was a witch and up to no good.

A guy named Dave Andrews is the latest golfing Gladys Kravitz to poke his nose into the business of a Samantha in the act of trying to get something done.

In this case, Andrews and some of his buddies were sitting on a couch in Daytona Beach, Fl., watching the Tournament of Champions when they noticed that Camilo Villegas flicking away some grass as his ball was rolling down a slope toward a divot on the 15th at Kapalua.

Andrews, who says he plays about 150 rounds a year, and his buddies thought something was wrong, so they went online to the United States Golf Association's website to look up the rules. There, they found one that said that when the ball is in motion, any loose impediment that might influence the ball's movement can't be moved.

From there, Andrews set out, in typical Gladys Kravitz fashion, to right a perceived wrong, but in a manner old Gladys could never have imagined 40-some years ago. He said he didn't know who to call, so he tweeted about what he saw. A PGA Tour official got the information, and because Villegas had signed his card before the penalty was enforced, Villegas was disqualified.

For his part, Andrews seemed a bit embarrassed when he spoke to The Associated Press after he was identified as the snitch, and rightfully so.

"When I wrote in, it was with the best of intentions," Andrews said. "I'm no stickler on the rules. I was stunned that nobody had seen it before and decided to write in a tweet. I thought the Golf Channel would have seen it, because they showed a replay. ... I can understand how it does slip someone's attention."

Last year, Dustin Johnson lost a shot at a playoff in the PGA Championship because of a rules infraction he didn't know about. And Juli Inkster was bounced from a tournament because some couch potato saw her swinging a weighted club during a long wait on the tee.

For a sport that prides itself on the personal integrity of its players, golf seems to rely heavily on the nosiness of strangers watching infractions while sitting at home, then deciding to channel their inner referee. Apparently, all it takes to be a golf referee is a comfortable seat in front of a television, a rules book, a beer and a telephone.

Imagine if that insanity played itself out in other sports. Would a shut-in Ed Hochuli be able to call NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in his box at Cowboys Stadium during the Super Bowl to say that he spotted a receiver stepping out of bounds and back on the field to make a critical catch that should be flagged? And what if some Joey Crawford wanna-be with a zoom function on his high def TV spots Kobe Bryant with a foot on the line trying for a three to clinch a three-peat for the Lakers in Game 7 of the NBA Finals?

Golf is just inviting this kind of nonsense by continuing to allow viewers to chime in with supposed rules violations they spot at home. Next time one of these do-gooders spots a blade of grass out of place or an extra weight on a club and feels the need to call in, officials should do precisely what Abner Kravitz used to do when Gladys saw Samantha twitching.

Ignore her.