- 1 year ago
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!
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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 up the tree but
01:14you are allowed to get assistance in getting up there. I think Langer enlisted some of the crowd to help him get that first
01:20foothold and Garcia clambered on a buggy to enable him to reach the 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 sure of your footing
01:37you could easily lose your footing, move the ball and undo all the good work of spending time getting up there.
01:43Yes. And also you can't improve the lice, you've got to be very careful what you do when you're up there. You can't improve the conditions affecting the stroke, otherwise again you'll be penalised.
01:51What about identifying it, Jess?
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 see whether it's your ball or not.
01:59If you're on the ground working out whether to perhaps take an unplayable, you 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 at the US Open at Shinnecock Hills.
02:29Jess, what happened?
02:30Okay, well if I say Phil Mickelson, most people will automatically know he ran round and hit his ball while it was still moving on the green.
02:38He had a 12-foot bogey putt on the 13th in the third round. He hit it too hard.
02:44The ball was going to roll off the green and go some distance back down the fringe and the fairway.
02:49Rather than allow it to do that, he ran round and hit it again while it was still moving.
02:53So what was the ultimate penalty in that scenario?
02:56Well the ultimate penalty was two strokes, and the rule at the time was 14-5, which said you must not make a stroke at a ball while it is moving.
03:04And 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 I guess one of those scenarios that arises when these guys are playing on a golf course that's
03:23set up quite hard, very hard, and the greens are incredibly quick. And it's just one of those things
03:29that happened. Yeah, I think so. I mean, it's close to the edge. I don't think he was playing particularly
03:34well. It's a tournament he's always desperately wanted to win, and this one clearly wasn't going
03:38to go his way either. So I think it was just an accumulation of various events, and suddenly he
03:44was 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
03:57I can remember from watching golf. Jez, what happened?
04:00Okay, so Tiger is playing 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.
04:15Ouch, and you see it every now and again on tour. These guys are so good, so accurate, so precise.
04:19They can hit the flag with their pitch shots every now and again. What did Tiger do next?
04:24Okay, well, he pondered his drop options, decided not to take back on the line relief because the
04:30ground was a bit soft over there, and elected to again replay the shot from where he'd last played
04:34from under penalty of stroke and distance. Except he didn't play quite from exactly where he'd last
04:40played from. He purposely went two club lengths further back to avoid the risk of hitting the flag
04:47again. Doing the same thing again, which again underlines how good these guys are. So what was the
04:52resolution then? Okay, well, you're not allowed to do that because you have to drop as close as
04:56possible to the spot where you originally played from. So to say that you've actually found that
05:01spot and then gone a bit further back is against the rules. But the Masters Committee had already
05:06been alerted to it and reviewed it and deemed it okay so that he could sign his card. And then I think
05:12later on was when Tiger mentioned the going two club lengths further back. By that time,
05:17he'd signed his card. So there was a lot of talk about whether he should be disqualified or what.
05:22But in the end, the Masters Committee decided because they'd already okayed him to sign his card,
05:27he would get a two shot penalty for effectively playing from a wrong place.
05:32And the scorecard would subsequently be changed. His six became an eight on that hole.
05:36Yeah. 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,
05:43Jez, did he not finish four shots off at the end of it or something?
05:48This was the interesting thing for me was that if the ball had spun and stopped Stone
05:52dead and he tapped in for birdie four, rather than the eight he had to sign for,
05:57four 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?
06:15Yeah, these happen from time to time. This one, we're talking about preferred lies,
06:19you've got a rubbish lie there in the winter in the UK, typically preferred lies in operation,
06:23you'd be able to move that. Sometimes they play preferred lies on tour in extreme conditions
06:31and in the French Open in 2019, Marcel Zim thought they were playing preferred lies and they weren't.
06:37Ah, so what happened? Well, what happened was, by the time the rules officials caught up with him
06:43in his first round, he preferred his lie five times. Right. So how many penalty shots is that?
06:49Well, we're talking two shots per incident for playing from a wrong place, rule 14.7. So by the
06:55time he reached the turn, his one over had become 11 over. Ouch. Yeah. Ouch. And I guess, I mean,
07:00it's, it feels incredibly harsh, isn't it? Because a penalty like that, 10 shots in a professional
07:06tournament is just going to effectively count you out, isn't it? You're not going to be able to
07:11recover from that. No, and that's exactly what he decided. He opted, didn't have to do this,
07:15but he opted to disqualify himself because I guess he thought he had very little chance from that
07:19position. Yeah. And, but I guess it's one of the oldest rules in the book, you know,
07:22play it as it lies. Yeah. It wasn't doing anything that he thought was untoward. It wasn't, you know,
07:26trying to gain an advantage, but you are gaining an advantage in that scenario. So I guess there's,
07:30you know, it is what it is. It is what it is. And I guess the moral of the tale,
07:34if there is one, is always check the local rules. Yes.
07:42Okay, Jess, so this one happened quite a few years ago now, 12 years ago. And it sticks in my mind
07:47very clearly because I remember thinking at the time this was very harsh. Explain what happened.
07:52Okay, so Stuart Sink is playing in the 2008 Zurich Classic. He's standing in a bunker to play a
07:57shot outside the bunker, which he then hits into another bunker 180 yards up the hole.
08:03His caddy rakes the bunker he was standing in and that action subsequently led to him being disqualified.
08:09But you've got to rake a bunker if you just hit a shot, isn't it? Well, unfortunately,
08:12the rules of the tire under rule 13-4 said you weren't allowed to test the condition of a hazard or a
08:17similar hazard. Right. That 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. Well, 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, OK, 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 difference
09:21now. Back in 2008, I guess it shows you that the rules of golf are constantly evolving, aren't they?
09:26They are evolving. They do listen to what's going on out there and sometimes very positive changes do happen.
09:31This one is the story of a six foot putt for birdie that ended up in a quadruple bogey.
09:42Yeah. Guess what happened?
09:43Well, it also involved one of these blowing across at a very inopportune moment. And this is,
09:48this 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
09:59the hole, knocked it offline. He tapped in with a...
10:03Thinking, that was unlucky.
10:05That was unlucky. And it turned out to be a lot more than unlucky because
10:09what he should actually have done is cancelled the stroke and replayed it.
10:13Yeah, it's one of those very, well, it was one of those very rare scenarios where you cancel the
10:17shot that you just hit. It doesn't happen very often in the rules.
10:21No.
10:21And 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, 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'd then played his next shot from a wrong place. That's a two-shot
10:51penalty. And 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.
11:03Yes.
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
11:11it 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
11:25of the Waste Management. I think it was 2019.
11:28Yes.
11:28And it involved Ricky Fowler.
11:30It did.
11:30What happened?
11:32OK, 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.
11:41Right, so he's then taken a drop.
11:43Taken a drop at somewhere like this point here.
11:46On quite a steep slope.
11:47Yeah, on a steep slope.
11:49Ball has come to rest.
11:50He's then wandered up to the top of the bank to have a look at what he got to do.
11:56And this is, I don't know, a few seconds, a minute later, he's standing at the top
12:00and 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,
12:09or behind him, he would be able to play that ball as it lies, right?
12:12Yeah.
12:13Rule 9.3 would have deemed that because the ball had been at rest,
12:17any subsequent movement is via natural forces.
12:20And when that happens, you simply play the ball from its new spot.
12:23Ricky's problem was that the new spot was two feet underwater again.
12:28So 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,
12:32but he has no real option, if he can't play it as it lies, to take another penalty drop.
12:38Just, I guess, one of those fairly rare rules scenarios,
12:41but that just feels really harsh, really tough on somebody.
12:45You know, they're gaining absolutely no advantage.
12:48No.
12:48But the rules are there for a reason.
12:51And I think this happened not long after the new rules had come into force,
12:53and a lot of people were up in arms saying that the new rules are silly,
12:57this is madness.
12:58But this rule hadn't changed.
13:00This was how it was before.
13:01So this was nothing to do with the rules changes.
13:03It was just an incident that occurred not long after the changes had come in.
13:07Thankfully for Ricky.
13:08Yes.
13:08All forgotten now, because he went on, he won the tournament.
13:11Not a problem.
13:12But that one really could have, in other circumstances, cost him really quite a lot.
13:17Yeah.
13:18So there you have it.
13:18That's our look at the seven strangest rules incidents on tour.
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13:42Thanks for watching.
13:43We'll see you next time.
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