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. Slightly younger
00:50golfers 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
01:06then you may go ahead and do that if it's wise and safe to do so. And perhaps more importantly
01:12their balls were higher up the tree but you are allowed to get assistance in getting up there.
01:16I think Langer enlisted some of the crowd to help him get that first foothold 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?
01:31Well, 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 you could easily lose your footing, move the ball and undo all the good work of spending time getting up there.
01:42Yes. 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?
01:52Yeah, 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.
02:06Or maybe a rangefinder. Can you zoom in enough with your rangefinder to see your markings on the ball up the tree?
02:12Yeah, so there you have it. Ball up the tree. You might think it's a rare scenario but it has happened.
02:22OK, so this one relates to another very famous rules incident. It happened in 2018 at the US Open at Shinnecock Hills. Jess, what happened?
02:29OK, well if I say Phil Mickelson, most people automatically know he ran round and hit his ball while it was still moving on the green.
02:37He had a 12 foot bogey putt on the 13th in the third round. He hit it too hard. The ball was going to roll off the green and go some distance back down the fringe and the fairway.
02:48Rather than allow it to do that, he ran round and hit it again while it was still moving.
02:52So what was the ultimate penalty in that scenario?
02:54Well, 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.
03:03And the penalty for doing that is two strokes. And the USGA felt that that rule covered the situation that happened and therefore two strokes was the appropriate penalty.
03:12Yeah, I remember it very clearly. I think he was playing with Beef Johnson at the time.
03:16He was.
03:17Yeah.
03:18Yeah, and I guess one of those scenarios that arises when these guys are playing on a golf course that's set up quite hard, very hard.
03:24Yeah.
03:25And the greens are incredibly quick. And it's just one of those things that happened.
03:29Yeah, I think so. I mean, it's close to the edge. I don't think he was playing particularly well.
03:34It's a tournament he's always desperately wanted to win and this one clearly wasn't going to go his way either.
03:39So I think it was just an accumulation of various events and suddenly he was striking a moving ball.
03:50OK, so this one happened at the 2013 US Masters. It's one of the most famous rules incidents I think I can remember from watching golf.
03:57Jez, what happened?
03:58OK, so Tiger is playing the 15th hole and he's hit pretty much the perfect third shot in, which normally would just miss the flag, spin and stop pretty close, very close maybe.
04:11Instead, 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, so precise.
04:19They can hit the flag with their pitch shots every now and again. What did Tiger do next?
04:24OK, well, he pondered his drop options, decided not to take back on the line relief because the ground was a bit soft over there and elected to again replay the shot from where he'd last played from under penalty of stroke and distance.
04:36Except he didn't play quite from exactly where he last played from. He purposely went two club lengths further back to avoid the risk of hitting the flag again.
04:47Doing the same thing again, which again underlines how good these guys are. So what was the resolution then?
04:52OK, well, you're not allowed to do that because you have to drop as close as possible to the spot where you originally played from.
04:57So to say that you've actually found that spot and then gone a bit further back is against the rules.
05:03But the Masters Committee had already been alerted to it and reviewed it and deemed it OK so that he could sign his card.
05:10Right, OK.
05:11And then I think later on was when Tiger mentioned the going two club lengths further back. By that time he'd signed his card so there was a lot of talk about whether he should be disqualified or what.
05:21But in the end the Masters Committee decided because they'd already OK'd him to sign his card, he would get a two shot penalty for effectively playing from the wrong place and the scorecard would subsequently be changed.
05:33His six became an eight on that hole.
05:35Yeah, and I think one of the reasons this was such a famous incident was because firstly it was Tiger, secondly he was in contention at the Masters and I think Jez.
05:43Yes.
05:44Did he not finish four shots off at the end of it or something?
05:47I think this was the interesting thing for me was that if the ball had spun and stopped stone dead and he tapped in for birdie four rather than the eight he had to sign for, four shots difference and he finished four shots out of the playoff.
06:06OK Jez, so this one refers to one of the most famous incidents out on tour where a player has got multiple penalty shots for getting something. What happened?
06:15Yeah, these happen from time to time. This one we're talking about preferred lies, you've got a rubbish lie there in the winter in the UK, typically preferred lies in operation, you'd be able to move that.
06:25Sometimes they play preferred lies on tour in extreme conditions and in the French Open in 2019 Marcel Zim thought they were playing preferred lies and they weren't.
06:37Ah, so what happened?
06:39Well what happened was by the time the rules officials caught up with him in his first round he preferred his lie five times.
06:46Right, so how many penalty shots is that?
06:48Well we're talking two shots per incident for playing from a wrong place, rule 14.7, so by the time he reached the turn his one over had become 11 over.
06:57Ouch. Ouch, and I guess I mean it feels incredibly harsh isn't it because a penalty like that ten 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.
07:11No, and that's exactly what he decided, he opted, didn't have to do this, but he opted to disqualify himself because I guess he thought he had very little chance from that position.
07:18Yeah, but I guess it's one of the oldest rules in the book, you know, play it as it lies, it wasn't doing anything that he thought was untoward, it wasn't trying to gain an advantage, but you are gaining an advantage in that scenario.
07:28So I guess there's, you know, it is what it is.
07:31It is what it is and I guess the moral of the tale if there is one is always check the local rules.
07:36OK, Jed, so this one happened quite a few years ago now, 12 years ago, and it sticks in my mind very clearly because I remember thinking at the time this was very harsh. Explain what happened.
07:51OK, so Stuart Sink is playing in the 2008 Zurich Classic, he's standing in a bunker to play a shot outside the bunker, which he then hits into another bunker 180 yards up the hole.
08:02His caddy rakes the bunker he was standing in, and that action subsequently led to him being disqualified.
08:08But you've got to rake a bunker if you've just hit a shot at him.
08:11Well, unfortunately the rules of the tyre under rule 13-4 said you weren't allowed to test the condition of a hazard or a similar hazard.
08:17Right, right.
08:18That was deemed to be a similar hazard, bunkers were hazards at the time, and therefore by raking it before he played the bunker shot further up the hole,
08:25that was what led to him being disqualified because it didn't come to light until after he'd signed his card, therefore he'd signed for a wrong score.
08:33A wrong score. Ouch.
08:34Yeah.
08:35Well, that's a really tough break, but it actually led to a change in the rules.
08:39Yeah.
08:40Well, I think it was very soon afterwards the Joint Rules Committee of the USGA and the RNA changed things because they didn't want people to think,
08:47well, okay, how do I care for the course properly if I'm not allowed to do this for 180 yards, then got to walk back.
08:53So they changed it to allow that as long as you didn't improve the conditions affecting your stroke.
08:59And now, 12 years down the line, rule 12.2b kind of positively encourages you to care for the course to the extent that you could rake part of a bunker
09:10that isn't anywhere near where your ball is lying before you play the shot if it was for the purpose of caring for the course.
09:15Caring for the course, maintaining a good pace of play, all of those things.
09:19It all makes a difference now.
09:21Back in 2008, I guess it shows you that the rules of golf are constantly evolving, aren't they?
09:25They are evolving.
09:26They do listen to what's going on out there and sometimes very positive changes do happen.
09:36This one is the story of a six foot putt for birdie that ended up in a quadruple bogey.
09:41Yeah.
09:42Guess what happened?
09:43Well, it also involved one of these blowing across at a very inopportune moment.
09:46Right.
09:47And this is Matthew Southgate in the 2017 Web.com Tour Finals, the second to last event.
09:53He, as you say, had a six foot putt for birdie.
09:55The leaf blew across as the ball was on its way to the hole, knocked it offline.
10:00He tapped in with a…
10:01Thinking, that was unlucky.
10:02That was unlucky.
10:03And it turned out to be a lot more than unlucky because what he should actually have done is
10:10cancelled the stroke and replayed it.
10:13It was one of those very rare scenarios where you cancel the shot that you just hit.
10:18It doesn't happen very often in the rules.
10:20No.
10:21And so he carried on.
10:22He just tapped in.
10:23Carried on, tapped in for par, he thought.
10:25But rule 19.1b at the time, don't look it up because the rule numbers have changed since
10:30then, said that a ball in motion from a putt from on the putting green that's deflected by
10:36an outside agency, a leaf, must be replaced and replayed.
10:41The stroke must be cancelled and you must replay it.
10:44It wasn't an option.
10:45You had to.
10:46Because he didn't do that, he then played his next shot from a wrong place.
10:50That's a two-shot penalty.
10:51And because none of this came fully to light until after he'd signed his card, there was
10:55another two-shot penalty for signing for a wrong score.
10:58I think this is one of the most unfortunate rules incidents I can think of.
11:02Yes.
11:03But actually, to his credit, he took it on the chin very well, didn't he?
11:07He 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.
11:20Right, Jez, the next one, I remember very clearly watching this on TV.
11:24It was in the final round of the Waste Management.
11:26I think it was 2019.
11:27Yes.
11:28And it involved Ricky Fowler.
11:29It did.
11:30What happened?
11:31OK, well, it's the 11th hole last round.
11:33He's leading and he's played a pitch that has just gone a bit too far, trundled off the
11:38back of the green and rolled into a penalty area.
11:40Right.
11:41So 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.
11:48Ball has come to rest.
11:49He's then wandered up to the top of the bank to have a look at what he got to do.
11:54See what he's doing.
11:55And this is, I don't know, a few seconds, a minute later.
11:58He's standing at the top and the ball suddenly moves and rolls back into the penalty area again.
12:03Ah.
12:04So, in normal circumstances, if this wasn't a penalty area behind me or behind him, he would
12:10be 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, any subsequent movement
12:17is via natural forces.
12:18And 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.
12:27So what did he have to do?
12:28So, it seems very harsh and a lot of people were up in arms about it at the time, but he
12:32has no real option, if he can't play it as it lies, to take another penalty drop.
12:37Just, I guess, one of those fairly rare rules scenarios, but that just feels really harsh,
12:43really tough on somebody.
12:44You know, they're gaining absolutely no advantage.
12:47No.
12:48But the rules are there for a reason.
12:50And I think this happened not long after the new rules had come into force and a lot
12:53of people were up in arms saying that the new rules are silly, this is madness.
12:58But this rule hadn't changed.
12:59This was how it was before.
13:00So this was nothing to do with the rules changes.
13:02It was just an incident that occurred not long after the changes had come in.
13:06Thankfully for Ricky.
13:07Yes.
13:08All forgotten now because he went on, he won the tournament, not a problem.
13:11But that one really could have, in other circumstances, cost him really quite a lot.
13:16Yeah.
13:17So there you have it.
13:18That's our look at the seven strangest rules incidents on tour.
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