A Dumb PGA Tour Rules Violation and Golf Outing Insurance Ripoff

     The USGA and PGA Tour need to come to some sort of resolution about stupid rules but we all know that is not going to happen and here is a good example.  Graeme McDowell felt the bite of a golf rule where a good round was turned ugly when he was the victim of a two shot penalty where  he was not the cause of what happened on the course.

     The bizarre scenario revieled itself when McDowell was playing at the BMW PGA Championship on Thursday when he approached his ball after hitting it into the bushes and he went into the brush to retrieve it. The ball was lying on a bed of branches and moved slightly before he was set to hit the ball. He took the penalty (it was not his fault) and then he didn't replace his ball and lost a second stroke. He finished with a triple-bogey eight and a 2-oover 74. McDowell handled the moment as best as he could. ''The rules of golf are very precise and in-depth - it's impossible to know every idiosyncrasy of them,'' McDowell said. Experienced players like Lee Westwood, who was in the same three-ball as McDowell, and Ernie Els were also left dumbfounded.

     ''These rules are funny,'' Els said. ''I've been a professional since 1989 and I should know the rules better than any of these youngsters, and I still ask for a ruling for the simplest things.''
Westwood added: ''I've never heard of that one. I have sympathy for him.''

        Players in no sport play well when they are looking over their shoulders and according to McDowell said players were becoming ''scared'' because the rules were so complicated.
''Looking back, I'm not sure what I could have done,'' he added. ''The ball was perched until I got 10 feet from it, and at that point it was too late. It's one of those freak scenarios in golf.''

     Chalk that rule as stupid. Any weekend golfer has had that happen and common sense should prevail.
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Man aces hole-in-one contest, but doesn't get Paid

     We have all played in a golf outing or two and get an extra jump in our step when we see that at least one golf hole is being insured and usually it is a par-3 and acing it means winning cash or a car. That is what Troy Peissig thought when he aced a 170 yard hole in a Montana golf outing.

     His reward was cash and the  $18,000 hole-in-one contest at a charity tournament started with euphoria and ended up with bitter disappointment now that he hasn't been paid a dime nearly two years after making the 170-yard shot.

Montana state authorities are intervening, and issued an arrest warrant last week against the operator of an insurance company they say failed to pay up on a policy purchased by the Missoula tournament.

Peissig, a scratch golfer, said it is a case of "how a good situation can go bad quickly."

The Montana commissioner of securities and insurance said Kevin Kolenda of hole-in-won.com has been unresponsive in the case and now faces felony charges. The insurance premiums are pricey and are based on the yardage distance and slope factors and look good on paper but rarely pay off.  You can insure hundreds if not thousands of these before paying a winner like Peissig but while he didn't get paid, Kolenda could do serious jail time if convicted. It turns out Kolenda also has failed to pay in other cases around the country, and continues to operate the scam without a license to sell insurance even though he has been sanctioned by regulators in Alabama, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Nevada, North Carolina, and Washington.

     Montana commissioner Monica Lindeen's office said it is highly uncommon to file felony charges — with an arrest warrant — against an insurance company. Usually disputes on unpaid claims are handled with fines or other administrative actions. But the Montana regulators said they moved aggressively in order to stop Kolenda from selling the insurance all over the country, despite not holding a license to do so.

"We want to make sure these companies aren't getting a gimme when it comes to paying these claims," said Lindeen, who suggested people check first with regulators that sellers of such insurance are licensed and registered with state authorities. Kolenda did not return a call Tuesday from The Associated Press seeking comment.

In a letter Kolenda sent to the tournament sponsor denying the claim, he claimed the hole was too short and violated the 165-yard minimum in the policy contract. Kolenda referenced the 130-yard length noted on the Missoula Country Club's standard score card. That is really a pack of lies. Anyone who has ever paid a premium on this insurance knows that the operator has a data base of pretty much any course in the country or could go online and look it up and offer a quote. Kolenda simply got caught in a fraud scheme.

     Peissig had previously hit three hole-in-ones prior to stepping to the tee box on the 12th hole at the Missoula Country Club in August 2010. He had even aced that hole on one previous occastion.

The 30-year-old former golf teacher said there were "some ace rumblings" in his group before he hit the 7-iron shot — which landed a couple feet in front of the hole, checked up and rolled in. "When I made that ace, I was stoked. I was pumped. That was really cool to have that happen," said Peissig. "Then it all went south." Kolenda also failed to call impartial judges for months and then did not pay Peissig. Kolenda failed to pay on the claim after agreeing finally to paying the claim.

"The money would be fantastic. My wife and I, we are a young family," said Peissig, who isn't counting on getting the money at this point. "At the same time, if there was a way for this hole-in-one company to not do this again to someone else, that would be just awesome."

This claim needs to be paid as many golfers will be leery of paying to get in a contest where the perception is they will not be paid. Only one bad egg can ruin it for the golf insurance industry.