Writers and golf and rules

There's an interesting debate going on about whether Michael Bamberger of Sports Illustrated crossed the line by playing a fairly prominent role in the disqualification of Michelle Wie in her first professional golf tournament. Bamberger queried her about a drop from an unplayable lie on Saturday, and then asked tournament officials about it. After taking her out to the spot, it was determined she dropped incorrectly, and she was disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard. As you might expect, they're weighing in heavily at sj.com in two places: here and here.

I'm squarely on the fence on this one. I think if the information got out because of a reporting inquiry, then Bamberger did little wrong. However, if he simply was the person blowing the whistle on a rules violation, I'm not sure he belonged in the story.

There's probably a little bit of truth in both. It's not an easy situation.