Kroichick: Golf's No. 1 rule - does it affect play?

Tiger Woods once marched onto the practice range, found his favorite spot and told an unsuspecting rookie to take a hike. Phil Mickelson once asked a marshal to move out of his line of vision, but he neglected to say, "Please."

Wait, shouldn't these players incur a penalty for their grievous sins?

Golf's history of integrity and self-policing is one thing, but this recent spate of "rules" violations borders on embarrassing. Jim Furyk became the latest to run afoul of the guidelines when he overslept Wednesday, missed his pro-am tee time and was disqualified from this week's PGA Tour playoff event in New Jersey.

Furyk's banishment came four days after Juli Inkster was disqualified from the LPGA event outside Portland, Ore., because she used a weighted "doughnut" to warm up while waiting on the No. 10 tee. Here's the rich part: A fan saw Inkster's violation on television and sent an e-mail to tournament officials.

Take a bow, oh alert viewer. You are officially a get-a-life-dimplehead.

So to review: In the past 12 days, one player (Dustin Johnson) lost his chance to win a major because he grounded his club in a "bunker" filled with footprints and spectators; a Hall of Famer was disqualified for warming up improperly; and the sixth-ranked player in the world was tossed for sleeping too late.

Gee, and golf officials wonder why their sport can't attract a bigger audience?

It's fine and admirable to adhere to rules affecting the competition. Players should not be allowed to ground their clubs in a bunker (as for the definition of a bunker ...). Nor should they be allowed to take a drop closer to the hole (sorry, Michelle Wie) or carry 15 clubs in their bag (hello, Ian Woosnam).

Go ahead and punish Furyk for missing the pro-am, an essential element of the tour's business model. But kicking him out of the tournament, much less the year's first playoff event? Are you kidding?

Furyk took the blame, saying his cell phone lost power overnight and the alarm didn't go off. But Mickelson -- knowing only 54 of the 122 players in this week's field were required to play in the pro-am -publicly blasted the rule, as he also did over lunch with PGA Commissioner Tim Finchem.

Tournament sponsors typically want to mingle with big-name players in pro-ams, and there's not enough time, space or interest for the entire field to play.

"Well, the rule itself applies to only half the field," Mickelson told reporters in New Jersey. "This rule is not protecting the players and it's not protecting the sponsors, yet it affects the integrity of the competition. I cannot disagree with it more. It's ridiculous."

He's right. It's time to review the rules, weed out the many illogical ones and then publish a new, not-quite-as-thick book. Then maybe the sanctimonious folks who insist, "Rules are rules," won't look so foolish.

By the way, Woods didn't really strong-arm the rookie on the range and Mickelson always says please. We think.

(E-mail Ron Kroichick at rkroichick(at)sfchronicle.com.)

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)