‘Please smell the cigarette!’ Strange Smoking at a Golf Tournament [기자수첩-스포츠]

There is no rule against smoking on the golf course.

However, there are some amateur golfers who smoke while riding a cart or put their hands in their pockets while walking after taking a tee shot. Cigarette smoke, which cannot be hidden, frowns non-smoking companions, so they have no choice but to notice.

So, it is common for most golfers to light a cigarette in the smoking area. In other words, it has long since become a mutually respectful etiquette to not light cigarettes at golf courses as much as possible, except for some ignorant smokers.

What about pro players? In fact, in the past, there were times when it was common to show a cigarette proudly in the mouth while playing a game. If you look for past photos of legendary golfers such as Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Sam Sneed, and Jack Nicklaus, you can often find them with cigarettes or cigars in their mouths. This is also the story of the days when tigers smoked cigarettes.

In fact, smoking on the golf course can cause dangerous things. it’s fire If the weather is dry, an inadvertently discarded cigarette butt can burn the lawn and cause a bigger fire. What if there is an act of throwing ashes on the green? It is unavoidable to have the ugly ‘tobacco bread’ engraved on it.

At Jack Nicklaus GCK in Songdo, Incheon, where the ‘DP World Tour Korea Championship Presented by Genesis’ was held from the 27th to the 30th of last month, we could witness a rare scene. It was the smoking of the players and caddies.

As soon as the reporter visited the site to cover the competition, his eyes were drawn to the cigarette smoke that irritated his nose as soon as he went to the practice green. Because this tournament was held concurrently with the European Tour, nearly half of the foreign players participated, and some of them were in the middle of practicing putting with cigarettes in their mouths. The caddies who watched this also watched the players training while shaking tobacco on the floor as if nothing was wrong.

lapped the course. Cigarette smoke rose from some tee shot zones without fail. The only thing that allowed me to breathe a sigh of relief was the fact that they put out the cigarette butts in the trash after firmly stepping on them.

I immediately looked up the KPGA rules book. In fact, the tour regulations do not prohibit smoking, but ‘Smoking, etc., can instill a bad image in the galleries visiting the competition venue and in the numerous golf fans watching the broadcast (Media Countermeasure Guide Article 4-(5)-①)’ It is specified.

Here, looking at the disciplinary standard table, it is stated that if smoking is caught in a non-smoking area, a fine of 300,000 won, 200,000 won, or 100,000 won is imposed depending on the tour level. In addition, if a scene of smoking in a non-smoking area is exposed on broadcast, a fairly large fine of 1 million won is given.

I contacted the association. In addition to the question “Really?”, the answer was “In fact, the European players participating in this tournament are following the DP World Tour rules and there are no disciplinary regulations related to smoking.”

The KPGA and DP World Tour have promised to hold a jointly hosted tournament once a year in Korea by 2025. Please, I look forward to setting up a separate smoking area at the tournament next year and inserting a local rule that prohibits smoking in the tee shot zone where fans openly watch.

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