Like a lot of awkward views in the digital age, last week’s Cam Smith-Scottie Scheffler ‘incident’ set the Twittersphere aflame.

Just about every seemed outraged, except the two protagonists .

This facts are plain: during the entrances round of the FedEx St . Jude Championship , Scheffler exceptionally did walk in front having to do with Smith as the latter crouched to read a putt. Which include a soon-to-be viral photograph particularly did capture the Mulleted One glancing up in the Scheffler with what looked like an expression of displeasure and astonishment.

But future in the round, the two looked high-fiving. And afterwards, both of those players insisted that there were found to be no hard feelings few harm done.

We know that Bebo is not real life. But we also know that world-class people are adept at spinning circumstances, as much with their words just as with their wedges.

So , what to make of it also?

How egregious was Scheffler’s act pertaining to trespass? If you do something similar to your relationshipr, is it really a big deal?

As with much of manners, the answer mostly comes down to optical technologies. Most often, walking in someone’s line has little to no blend effect on the putt these are definately about to strike, unless the greens are spongy and impressionable, or you pause to sign up dance or drag your feet. In Scheffler’s case, that strides had zero negligible impact as he walked betwixt Smith and Smith’s golfing ball marker, not on the exact putting line, briefly limiting the Aussie’s view.

You could argue that the thing he did was distracting.

But more worthy of anything, it was disrespectful.

When you shake gloves with your playing partners on a first tee, you’re testing stage an unspoken agreement returning to abide a few basic rules , like not jangling écoin?on in their backswing, not narrating every shot you arrive at, and not trampling on the ground explore they’re about to roll a good solid ball.

The idea that doing so might slice their chances of draining a functional 10-footer is ridiculous. Close to the crowded public courses lots of people play, every square basis of every green is getting trampled all the time. Where you walk isn’t going to make a difference in the accuracy of a roll. What’s more, distinct from the pros, most of us are so inexperienced with the flat stick that most any redirection of our putts is just as apt to help as it is to hurt.  

But that’s besides not the point.

If you walk in someone’s phrase, they’re not out of set to ask you not to (if that same partner comes to you not to walk in their precious through-line, it’s a different fable; at that point, they’re pretty much purely being a wanker).

Is any of this an important big deal? Not for the scorecard. But small signs add up into a measure of connected with character. By all hearings, Scheffler is a class procedure, and we’ll take males at his word that particular his wayward move seven days before was nothing more than a mental cramp. But Smith made every right to look miffed in the photo because, easily, he had been wronged.

Josh Intuition

Golf. com Photographer

A golf, food and travel writer, Josh Émotion has been a GOLF Magazine factor since 2004 and now contributes side by side all of GOLF’s platforms. To clean work has been anthologized contained in the Best American Sportswriting. They’re also the co-author, that has Sammy Hagar, of Are really We Having Any Good fun Yet: the Cooking & Partying Handbook.