Strangest Golf Rules Incidents On Tour

Golf Monthly

In this video, Neil Tappin is joined by Golf Monthly's rule guru Jezz Ellwood to discuss 7 of the strangest rules incidents to occur on tour. As golf is played in a natural landscape there is a possibility for a whole array of things to happen whilst you are playing. The fact that these rules incidents happened shows that even professional golfers can find themselves in odd circumstances whilst playing. And from watching this video, you will know what to do if you ever find yourself in a situation that is similar to one of these!

Transcript

00:00Hello everyone, Neil Tappin here from Golf Monthly and welcome to the London Club and this video

00:08looking at the seven strangest or most unusual rules incidents that have happened out on tour.

00:14Now some of these are really famous that I'm sure many of you watching this will have heard about,

00:19some of them are less obvious, less well known about, they're all incredibly unusual. So let's

00:25head out now onto the golf course here at the London Club and look at the seven strangest rules

00:29incidents on tour.

00:35Okay, so hopefully you can see behind me here there is a golf ball stuck up a tree. Now, Jez, what are the famous

00:40rules incidents where balls have been stuck up a tree?

00:43Okay, well golfers of a certain age would automatically remember Bernard Langer at Fulford in 1981.

00:49Slightly younger golfers may well remember Sergio Garcia clambering around in a tree at Bay Hill just six or seven years ago.

00:56That would suggest to me then that you're able to play the ball as it lies if it's stuck up a tree. Is that true?

01:01It is true. Tree is just really part of the general area and if you're able to get up there to play the ball then you may go

01:07ahead and do that if it's wise and safe to do so. And perhaps more importantly their balls were higher

01:13up the tree but you are allowed to get assistance in getting up there. I think Langer enlisted some

01:18of the crowd to help him get that first foothold and Garcia clambered on a buggy to enable him to reach

01:24the branch to haul himself up.

01:26Yeah, it's maybe not that advisable. It's risky, it's dangerous. It's also risky from a rules perspective, isn't it?

01:32Well, once you're up there you've obviously got to be careful not to move the ball and if you're clambering around and not quite

01:36sure of your footing you could easily lose your footing, move the ball and undo all the good work of spending time getting

01:42up there. And also you can't improve the lice. You've got to be very careful what you do when you're up there.

01:47You can't improve the conditions affecting the stroke otherwise again you'll be penalised.

01:51What about identifying it, Jez?

01:53Yeah, well you've got to be able to identify it's your ball before you play it. Obviously if you've clambered up the tree you can

01:57see whether it's your ball or not. If you're on the ground working out whether to perhaps take an unplayable

02:03you can use binoculars. You probably won't have any but on tour that has happened. Or maybe a rangefinder.

02:08Can you zoom in enough with your rangefinder to see your markings on the ball up the tree?

02:13Yeah, so there you have it. Ball up the tree. You might think it's a rare scenario but it has happened.

02:23Okay, so this one relates to another very famous rules incident. It happened in 2018

02:28at the US Open at Shinnecock Hills. Jez, what happened?

02:30Okay, well if I say Phil Mickelson most people will automatically know he ran round and hit his

02:37ball while it was still moving on the green. He had a 12 foot bogey putt on the 13th in the third

02:42round. He hit it too hard. The ball was going to roll off the green and go some distance back down

02:47the fringe and the fairway. Rather than allow it to do that he ran round and hit it again while it

02:52was still moving. So what was the ultimate penalty in that scenario? Well the ultimate penalty was two

02:57strokes and the rule at the time was 14-5 which said you must not make a stroke at a ball while it is

03:03moving and the penalty for doing that is two strokes and the USGA felt that that rule covered the

03:09situation that happened and therefore two strokes was the appropriate penalty.

03:13Yeah, I remember it very clearly. I think he was playing with Beef Johnson at the time.

03:17Yeah, and it's I guess one of those scenarios that arises when these guys are playing on a golf course

03:23that's set up quite hard, very hard and the greens are incredibly quick and it's just one of those

03:29things that happened. Yeah, I think so. I mean it's it's close to the edge. I don't think he was

03:33playing particularly well. It's a tournament he's always desperately wanted to win and this one

03:38clearly wasn't going to go his way either. So I think it was just an accumulation of various events

03:43and suddenly he was striking a moving ball.

03:51Okay, so this one happened at the 2013 US Masters. It's one of the most famous rules incidents I think I

03:57can remember from watching golf. Jez, what happened?

04:00Okay, so Tiger is playing the the 15th hole and he's hit pretty much the perfect third shot in

04:06which normally would just miss the flag, spin and stop pretty close, very close maybe. Instead,

04:12it's hit the flag and bounced back into the water. Ouch, and you see it every now and again on tour,

04:17these guys are so good, so accurate, so precise, they can hit the flag with their pitch shots every

04:21now and again. What did Tiger do next? Okay, well he pondered his drop options,

04:27decided not to take back on the line relief because the ground was a bit soft over there

04:31and elected to again replay the shot from where he'd last played from under penalty of stroke and

04:36distance, except he didn't play quite from exactly where he'd last played from. He purposely went two

04:43club lengths further back to avoid the risk of hitting the flag again. Doing the same thing again,

04:48which again underlines how good these guys are. So what was the resolution then? Okay, well,

04:54you're not allowed to do that because you have to drop as close as possible to the spot where you

04:57originally played from. So to say that you've actually found that spot and then gone a bit

05:02further back is against the rules. But the Masters Committee had already been alerted to it and reviewed

05:07it and deemed it okay so that he could sign his card. And then I think later on was when Tiger mentioned

05:14the going two club lengths further back. By that time he'd signed his card, so there was a lot of talk

05:20about whether he should be disqualified or what. But in the end the Masters Committee decided,

05:25because they'd already okayed him to sign his card, he would get a two-shot penalty for effectively

05:30playing from a wrong place and the scorecard would subsequently be changed. His six became an eight

05:35on that hole. Yeah, and I think one of the reasons this was such a famous incident was because it was

05:41firstly it was Tiger, secondly he was in contention at the Masters and I think Jez. Yes. Did he not finish

05:46four shots off at the end of it or something? This was the the interesting thing for me was that

05:50if the ball had spun and stopped stone dead and he tapped in for birdie four rather than the eight

05:56he had to sign for, four shots difference and he finished four shots out of the playoff.

06:06Okay Jez, so this one refers to one of the most famous incidents out on tour where a player has got

06:12multiple penalty shots for getting something, what happened? Yeah, these happen from time to time.

06:17This one we're talking about preferred lies, you've got a rubbish lie there in the winter in the UK,

06:22typically preferred lies in operation, you'd be able to move that. Sometimes they play preferred lies

06:28on tour in extreme conditions and in the French Open in 2019 Marcel Zim thought they were playing

06:35preferred lies and they weren't. Ah, so what happened? Well what happened was by the time

06:42the rules officials caught up with him in his first round he preferred his lie five times.

06:47Right, so how many penalty shots is that? Well we're talking two shots per incident for

06:51playing from a wrong place, rule 14.7, so by the time he reached the turn his one over had become 11

06:58over. Ouch. Ouch, and I guess it feels incredibly harsh, isn't it? Because a penalty like that,

07:04ten shots in a professional tournament is just going to effectively count you out, isn't it?

07:09You're not going to be able to recover from that. No, and that's exactly what he decided,

07:13he opted, didn't have to do this, but he opted to disqualify himself because I guess he thought he

07:17had very little chance from that position. Yeah, but I guess it's one of the oldest rules in the book,

07:21you know, play it as lies. Yeah. He wasn't doing anything that he thought was untoward,

07:25it wasn't, you know, trying to gain an advantage, but you are gaining an advantage in that scenario,

07:29so I guess there's, you know, it is what it is. It is what it is, and I guess the moral of the

07:33tale, if there is one, is always check the local rules. Yes.

07:42Okay, Jez, so this one happened quite a few years ago now, 12 years ago,

07:46and it sticks in my mind very clearly because I remember thinking at the time this was very harsh.

07:51Explain what happened. Okay, so Stuart Sink is playing in the 2008 Zurich

07:55Classic. He's standing in a bunker to play a shot outside the bunker, which he then hits into

08:00another bunker 180 yards up the hole. His caddy rakes the bunker he was standing in,

08:06and that action subsequently led to him being disqualified. But you've got to rake a bunker

08:11if you just hit a shot. Well, unfortunately, the rules of the tire under rule 13-4 said you weren't

08:15allowed to test the condition of a hazard or a similar hazard. Right. Right.

08:19That was deemed to be a similar hazard. Bunkers were hazards at the time,

08:22and therefore, by raking it before he played the bunker shot further up the hole,

08:27that was what led to him being disqualified because it didn't come to light

08:31until after he'd signed his card. Therefore, he'd signed for a wrong score.

08:34A wrong score. Ouch. Yeah.

08:35Well, that's a really tough break, but it actually led to a change in the rules.

08:40Yeah. Well, I think it was very soon afterwards, the Joint Rules Committee of the USGA and the RNA

08:46changed things because they didn't want people to think, well, okay, how do I care for the course

08:50properly? If I'm not allowed to do this for 180 yards, then got to walk back. So they changed it

08:55to allow that as long as you didn't improve the conditions affecting your stroke. And now,

09:0112 years down the line, rule 12.2b kind of positively encourages you to care for the course

09:07to the extent that you could rake part of a bunker that isn't anywhere near where your ball is lying

09:13before you play the shot if it was for the purpose of caring for the course.

09:16Caring for the course, maintaining a good pace of play, all of those things. It all makes a

09:21difference now. Back in 2008, I guess it shows you that the rules of golf are constantly evolving,

09:25aren't they? They are evolving. They do listen to what's going on out there and sometimes

09:30very positive changes do happen.

09:37This one is the story of a six foot putt for birdie that ended up in a quadruple bogey.

09:42Yeah. Guess what happened? Well, it also involved one of these blowing across at a very inopportune

09:47moment. And this is Matthew Southgate in the 2017 web.com tour finals, the second to last event.

09:54He, as you say, had a six foot putt for birdie. The leaf blew across as the ball was on its way to the

09:59hole, knocked it offline. He tapped in with a... Thinking that was unlucky. That was unlucky.

10:06And it turned out to be a lot more than unlucky because what he should actually have done is

10:11cancelled the stroke and replayed it. Yeah, it's one of those very... Well,

10:15it was one of those very rare scenarios where you cancel the shot that you just hit.

10:19It doesn't happen very often in the rules. No.

10:22And so he carried on. He just tapped in.

10:23Carried on, tapped in for par, he thought. But rule 19.1b at the time, don't look it up

10:29because the rule numbers have changed since then. It said that a ball in motion from a putt,

10:34from on the putting green that's deflected by an outside agency, a leaf, must be replaced and

10:41replayed. The stroke must be cancelled and you must replay it. It wasn't an option. You had to.

10:46Because he didn't do that, he then played his next shot from a wrong place. That's a two-shot penalty.

10:52And because none of this came fully to light until after he'd signed his card,

10:56there was another two-shot penalty for signing for a wrong score.

10:59I think this is one of the most unfortunate rules incidents I can think of, Jez.

11:04But actually, to his credit, he took it on the chin very well, didn't he?

11:08He took it on the chin and blamed himself for not knowing the rules better, even though

11:12it ultimately was a major reason why he didn't get his PGA Tour card for the following season.

11:21Right, Jez. The next one, I remember very clearly watching this on TV. It was in the final round of

11:25the Waste Management. I think it was 2019. Yes. And it involved Ricky Fowler. It did.

11:30What happened? Okay, well, it's the 11th hole last round. He's leading

11:35and he's played a pitch that has just gone a bit too far, trundled off the back of the green and

11:40rolled into a penalty area. Right. So he's then taken a drop.

11:43Taken a drop at somewhere like this point here. On quite a steep slope.

11:47Yeah, on a steep slope. Ball has come to rest. He's then wandered up to the top of the bank to have

11:53a look at what he got to do. And this is, I don't know, a few seconds, a minute later.

11:59He's standing at the top and the ball suddenly moves and rolls back into the penalty area again.

12:04Ah, so in normal circumstances, if this wasn't a penalty area behind me or behind him,

12:10he would be able to play that ball as it lies, right? Yeah. Rule 9.3 would have deemed that because

12:15the ball had been at rest, any subsequent movement is via natural forces. And when that happens,

12:21you simply play the ball from its new spot. Ricky's problem was that the new spot

12:25was two feet under water again. So what did he have to do?

12:29So it seems very harsh and a lot of people were up in arms about it at the time, but he has no real

12:33option, if he can't play it as it lies, to take another penalty drop. Just, I guess, one of those

12:40fairly rare rules scenarios, but that just feels really harsh, really tough on somebody. You know,

12:45they're gaining absolutely no advantage. No. But the rules are there for a reason.

12:51And I think this happened not long after the new rules had come into force and a lot of people were

12:54up in arms saying that the new rules are silly, this is madness, but this rule hadn't changed.

13:00This was how it was before. So this was nothing to do with the rules changes. It was just an incident

13:04that occurred not long after the changes had come in. Thankfully for Ricky. Yes. All forgotten now,

13:09because he went on, he won the tournament, not a problem. But that one really could have,

13:14in other circumstances, cost him really quite a lot. Yeah. So there you have it. That's our look

13:19at the seven strangest rules incidents on tour. The last thing that I'll say to you guys is that

13:25if you haven't done already, please do hit the subscribe button to make sure that you don't miss

13:29any of our videos. We cover the rules in great detail, but we also cover things like equipment

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13:38hit that subscribe button and you'll get what you need from the Golf Monthly channel.

13:41But that's it for now. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.

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