It looks cut and dried. No ambiguity. A clear violation.

Lucy Li, the pigtail wearing 16-year-old California girl who has been a mainstay on the American amateur golf scene since she qualified for the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open at age 11, almost certainly broke the USGA Rules of Amateur Status.

Here’s what we know: Last Friday, someone at the USGA saw an ad for the Apple Watch, part of the company’s “Close Your Rings” campaign. One of the features of the new watch is a color-coded three-ring system that monitors the wearer’s movement. As you stand, move and exercise, the rings tally your actions. The objective is to move enough to “close” all three rings every day.

To advertise that feature, Apple developed a campaign with active watch-wearers. They include a yoga instructor identified as Natsumi Y. from Tokyo, an orchestra conductor named Jason L., who also bikes and lifts weights, and two recognizable athletes: U.S. Olympic swimmer Haley Anderson and Li (above), who is shown in the ad hitting shots, working out and practicing her swing in a swimming pool, all while wearing her Apple Watch.

Here is the Apple advertisement featuring Lucy Li

No one from the USGA knew the ads were coming. American Junior Golf Association executive director Stephen Hamblin also was caught off guard. When I reached out to LPGA commissioner Mike Whan to ask if Li was turning pro, Whan responded, “News to me.” And all the sports agents I reached during the weekend said they were in the dark as well.

Rule 6-2 of the USGA’s Rules of Amateur Status reads:

“An amateur golfer of golf skill or reputation must not use that skill or reputation to obtain payment, compensation, personal benefit or any financial gain, directly or indirectly, for (i) promoting, advertising or selling anything, or (ii) allowing his name or likeness to be used by a third party for the promotion, advertisement or sale of anything.

“In the context of this Rule, even if no payment or compensation is received, an amateur golfer is deemed to receive a personal benefit by promoting, advertising or selling anything, or allowing his name or likeness to be used by a third party for the promotion, advertisement or sale of anything.”

Li’s mother, Amy, told Golf Digest that the teenager wasn’t paid by Apple. As the rule is written, that’s irrelevant. Assuming she intends to remain an amateur, she is without question a golfer of skill and reputation who received a personal benefit by becoming one of the faces of a company with a $700 billion market cap.

So, the question is: What does the USGA do about this?

When I reached a representative on Saturday morning, I was sent a statement that read: “The USGA was made aware of this yesterday and we’ve reached out to Lucy’s family to learn more about her participation in these videos. We are at the beginning of the fact-finding stage, and it’s premature at this point to discuss more. Lucy’s family has been fully cooperative and we are thankful for the dialogue.”

Dialogue or not, the facts seem clear. Li broke the rules, and not in a happenstance fashion. You don’t show up at Apple headquarters and say, “Hey, I wear your watch and want to be in your ads.” Nor does a company like Apple enter into agreements with teenagers without reams of legal documentation. This deal was planned, negotiated, contracted, shot, edited and executed with great care. To give the Li clan the “we didn’t know” benefit of the doubt assumes naïveté beyond all common sense.

No matter their motivation, the family has put the USGA in a terrible bind. If the rules of amateurism mean anything, Li must be deemed a professional. You can debate whether the rules should be changed. But as they are written, you could not find a clearer violation.

And the second they revoke her amateur status, the folks in Far Hills, N.J., will face a PR bloodbath. Already the knives are out. Old white men in blue jackets picking on a talented Asian-American girl barely old enough to drive. That’s the picture that will be painted, not in days but in seconds. Vitriol will sweep the news cycle like a wildfire. The USGA will be the perfect villain and Li, all pigtails and smiles with her immigrant family by her side will be painted as victims.

Even golfers are jumping onboard. Twitter is awash with comments saying, in effect, “What’s the harm? A young girl playing golf in an Apple ad can’t be bad for the game, can it?”

Only if amateurism no longer matters. Only if the rules are malleable and, therefore, meaningless.
You cannot envy the people at the USGA. There aren’t many rocks and hard places much bigger than the ones they’re between.

But before you jump to conclusions, think about this: Li is listed in the field for the AJGA Buick Shanshan Feng Girls Invitational on February 15-18. She will be playing against girls who know the rules; girls with parents who have shelled out small fortunes to keep their daughters competitive in the junior game.

How will those girls and their parents look at Li? Will anyone call her a “cheat” to her face?

And what does it say about the corporate executives and the adults who signed contracts with them, that they would put a 16-year-old girl in this position?

Steve Eubanks

This Steve Eubanks article is reproduced with the permission of the Global Golf Post, the world’s first designed-for-digital weekly golf magazine. Subscribe for free at globalgolfpost.com.

Feature photo of Lucy Li at the 2018 US Women’s Open by Ben Harpring