Strangest Golf Rules Incidents On Tour
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 Tappan here from Golf Monthly and welcome to the London Club and
00:07this video looking at the seven strangest or most unusual rules incidents that have
00:12happened out on tour.
00:14Now some of these are really famous that I'm sure many of you watching this will have heard
00:18about.
00:19Some of them are less obvious, less well known about, they're all incredibly unusual.
00:24So let's head out now onto the golf course here at the London Club and look at the seven
00:28strangest rules incidents on tour.
00:35Okay so hopefully you can see behind me here there is a golf ball stuck up a tree.
00:39Now Jez, what are the famous rules 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.
00:50Slightly younger golfers may well remember Sergio Garcia clambering around in a tree
00:54at 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
01:00stuck up a tree.
01:01Is that true?
01:02It is true.
01:03Tree is just really part of the general area and if you're able to get up there to play
01:06the ball then you may go ahead and do that if it's wise and safe to do so and perhaps
01:11more importantly their balls were higher up the tree but you are allowed to get assistance
01:16in getting up there.
01:17I think Langer enlisted some of the crowd to help him get that first foothold and Garcia
01:22clambered on a buggy to enable him to reach the branch to haul himself up.
01:26It's maybe not that advisable, it's risky, it's dangerous, it's also risky from a rules
01:31perspective isn't it?
01:32Well once you're up there you've obviously got to be careful not to move the ball and
01:35if you're clambering around and not quite sure of your footing you could easily lose
01:38your footing, move the ball and undo all the good work of spending time getting up there.
01:43And also you can't improve the lies, you've got to be very careful what you do when you're
01:47up there, you can't improve the conditions affecting the stroke otherwise again you'll
01:51be penalised.
01:52What about identifying it?
01:53You've got to be able to identify it's your ball before you play it, obviously if you've
01:56clambered 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
02:04binoculars, you probably won't have any but on tour that has happened, or maybe a rangefinder,
02:09can you zoom in enough with your rangefinder to see your markings on the ball up the tree.
02:13So there you have it, ball up a tree, you might think it's a rare scenario but it has
02:17happened.
02:23Okay so this one relates to another very famous rules incident, it happened in 2018 at the
02:28US Open at Shinnecock Hills, Jez what happened?
02:30Okay well if I say Phil Mickelson most people 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
02:41the third round, he hit it too hard, the ball was going to roll off the green and go some
02:46distance back down the fringe and the fairway, rather than allow it to do that he ran round
02:51and 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
03:01you must not make a stroke at a ball while it is moving and the penalty for doing that
03:05is two strokes and the USGA felt that that rule covered the situation that happened and
03:11therefore two strokes was the appropriate penalty.
03:13Yeah I remember it very clearly, I think he was playing with Beef Johnson at the time.
03:19I 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
03:28one of those things that happened.
03:30Yeah 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
03:38going 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.
03:50Okay so this one happened at the 2013 US Masters, it's one of the most famous rules incidents
03:56I think I can remember from watching golf.
03:58Jez, what happened?
04:00Okay so Tiger is playing the 15th hole and he's hit pretty much the perfect third shot
04:05in which normally would just miss the flag, spin and stop pretty close, very close maybe.
04:12Instead it's hit the flag and bounced back into the water.
04:14Ouch, and you see it every now and again on tour, these guys are so good, so accurate,
04:18so precise, they can hit the flag with their pitch shots every now and again.
04:23What did Tiger do next?
04:25Okay well he pondered his drop options, decided not to take back on the line relief because
04:30the ground was a bit soft over there and elected to again replay the shot from where he'd last
04:34played from under penalty of stroke and distance, except he didn't play quite from exactly where
04:40he'd last played from, he purposely went two club lengths further back to avoid the risk
04:46of hitting the flag again.
04:48And he was doing the same thing again, which again underlines how good these guys are.
04:51So what was the resolution then?
04:53Okay well you're not allowed to do that because you have to drop as close as possible to the
04:57spot where you originally played from, so to say that you've actually found that spot
05:01and then gone a bit further back is against the rules.
05:04But the Masters Committee had already been alerted to it and reviewed it and deemed it
05:08okay 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.
05:17By that time he'd signed his card so there was a lot of talk about whether he should
05:21be disqualified or what, but in the end the Masters Committee decided, because they'd
05:25already okayed him to sign his card, he would get a two shot penalty for effectively playing
05:30from the wrong place and the scorecard would subsequently be changed, his six became an
05:35eight on that hole.
05:36Yeah and I think one of the reasons this was such a famous incident was because firstly
05:41it was Tiger, secondly he was in contention at the Masters and I think Jez, did he not
05:45finish 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'd tapped in for birdie four, rather than the eight he had to sign for four shots
05:57difference 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
06:11player has got multiple penalty shots for doing something, what happened?
06:16Yeah these happen from time to time, this one we're talking about preferred lies, you've
06:19got a rubbish lie there in the winter in the UK, typically preferred lies in operation,
06:24you'd be able to move that.
06:27Sometimes they play preferred lies on tour in extreme conditions and in the French Open
06:32in 2019 Marcel Zim thought they were playing preferred lies and they weren't.
06:38Ah, so what happened?
06:40So what happened was by the time the rules officials caught up with him in his first
06:44round he'd preferred his lie five times.
06:46Right, 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,
06:54so by the time he reached the turn his one over had become 11 over.
06:58Ouch.
06:59Yeah.
07:00Ouch and I guess it feels incredibly harsh doesn't it, because a penalty like that, ten
07:05shots in a professional tournament is just going to effectively count you out isn't it,
07:10you're not going to be able to recover from that.
07:12No and that's exactly what he decided, he opted, he didn't have to do this, but he opted
07:15to disqualify himself because I guess he thought he had very little chance from that position.
07:19Yeah, but I guess it's one of the oldest rules in the book, play it as a lie, it wasn't doing
07:23anything that he thought was untoward, it wasn't trying to gain an advantage, but you
07:27are gaining an advantage in that scenario, so I guess it is what it is.
07:32It is what it is and I guess the moral of the tale if there is one is always check the
07:35local rules.
07:36OK Jez, so this one happened quite a few years ago now, 12 years ago, and it sticks in my
07:47mind very clearly because I remember thinking at the time this was very harsh, explain what
07:51happened.
07:52OK so Stuart Sink is playing in the 2008 Zurich Classic, he's standing in a bunker to play
07:57a shot 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
08:08being disqualified.
08:09But you have got to rake a bunker if you have just hit a shot in it.
08:12Unfortunately the rules at the time under rule 13.4 said you weren't allowed to test
08:16the condition of a hazard or a similar hazard.
08:19That was deemed to be a similar hazard, bunkers were hazards at the time and therefore by
08:23raking it before he played the bunker shot further up the hole that was what led to him
08:28being disqualified because it didn't come to light until after he had signed his card,
08:32therefore he had signed for a wrong score.
08:34A wrong score, ouch, wow that's a really tough break, but it actually led to a change in
08:39the rules didn't it?
08:40Yes, well I think it was very soon afterwards the joint rules committee of the USGA and
08:44the RNA changed things because they didn't want people to think well OK how do I care
08:50for the course properly if I am not allowed to do this for 180 yards then I have got to
08:53walk back.
08:54So they changed it to allow that as long as you didn't improve the conditions affecting
08:59your stroke and now 12 years down the line rule 12.2b kind of positively encourages
09:06you to care for the course to the extent that you could rake part of a bunker that isn't
09:11anywhere near where your ball is lying before you play the shot if it was for the purpose
09:15of caring for the course.
09:16Caring for the course, maintaining a good pace of play, all of those things, it all
09:20makes a difference now, back in 2008 I guess it shows you that the rules of golf are constantly
09:25evolving aren't they?
09:26They are evolving, they do listen to what is going on out there and sometimes very positive
09:30changes do happen.
09:37This one is the story of a six foot putt for birdie that ended up in a quadruple bogey.
09:42Guess what happened?
09:43Well it also involved one of these blowing across at a very inopportune moment.
09:48This is Matthew Southgate in the 2017 web.com tour finals, the second to last event, he
09:54as you say had a six foot putt for birdie, the leaf blew across as the ball was on its
09:58way to the hole, knocked it off line, he tapped in thinking that was unlucky and it turned
10:06out to be a lot more than unlucky because what he should actually have done is cancelled
10:12the stroke and replayed it.
10:14It was one of those very rare scenarios where you cancel the shot that you just hit, it
10:19doesn't happen very often in the rules and so he carried on, he just tapped in.
10:24He carried on, tapped in for par he thought, but rule 19.1b at the time, don't look it
10:29up because the rule numbers have changed since then, said that a ball in motion from on the
10:34putting green that is deflected by an outside agency, a leaf, must be replaced and replayed,
10:42the stroke must be cancelled and you must replay it.
10:44It 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 is a two
10:51shot penalty.
10:52Because none of this came fully to light until after he had signed his card there was another
10:56two shot penalty for signing for a wrong score.
10:59I think this is one of the most unfortunate rules incidents I can think of, but actually
11:05his credit, he took it on the chin very well.
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
11:26of the Waste Management, I think it was 2019, and it involved Ricky Fowler.
11:30It did.
11:31What happened?
11:32OK, well it's the 11th hole last round, he's leading and he's played a pitch that has just
11:38gone a bit too far, trundled off the back of the green and rolled into a penalty area.
11:41Right, so he's then taken a drop.
11:44Taken a drop at somewhere like this point here.
11:46On quite a steep slope.
11:47Yeah, on a steep slope, the ball has come to rest, he's then wandered up to the top
11:52of the bank to have a look at what he's got to do, and this is a few seconds, a minute
11:58later, he's standing at the top and the ball suddenly moves and rolls back into the penalty
12:03area again.
12:04Ah, so in normal circumstances, if this wasn't a penalty area behind me, or behind him, he
12:11would be able to play that ball as it lies, right?
12:13Yeah, rule 9.3 would have deemed that because the ball had been at rest, any subsequent
12:18movement is via natural forces, and when that happens, you simply play the ball from its
12:22new spot.
12:23Ricky's problem was that the new spot was two feet underwater again.
12:28So what did he have to do?
12:30It seems very harsh and a lot of people were up in arms about it at the time, but he has
12:33no real option, if he can't play it as it lies, to take another penalty drop.
12:38I guess one of those fairly rare rules scenarios, but that just feels really harsh, really tough
12:44on somebody.
12:45You know, they're gaining absolutely no advantage, 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
12:54people were up in arms saying that the new rules are silly, this is madness, but this
12:59rule hadn't changed, this was how it was before, so 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, all forgotten now, because he went on, he won the tournament, not 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, that's our look at the seven strangest rules incidents on tour.
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