Tag: Rules of Golf

After further review, LPGA’s Angel Yin cleared from any rules infraction, leads CME by two

Yin has now pulled her second shot in the water on the fourth hole two days in a row.

NAPLES, Fla. — After second-round leader Angel Yin signed her scorecard at the CME Group Tour Championship, she and her caddie rode off with LPGA rules official Sue Witters to review footage from the fourth hole.

The question centered around a drop Yin took on the par 4 after hitting her second shot in the water. There was concern that she’d taken the drop closer than allowed. Yin would go on to get up-and-down for bogey, making a six-foot putt.

“They wanted to ask me about the process of the drop, and if I used all my resources to be able to come to a determination of where I crossed and how I took my drop,” said Yin.

“So we talked it through. We even brought Narin (An) and (caddie) Justin (Dunbar) in, everybody from the group.”

After completing the review, LPGA officials determined that no further action was required and Yin maintained her two-stroke lead.

CME Group Tour Championship: Leaderboard | Photos

“I think everybody is trying to hold up integrity and the rules of golf because it would be bad if we cheat, so we don’t want that,” said Yin.

“And anyway, we talked it through. It was all good.”

Yin’s second-round 69 puts her at 10 under for the tournament and two shots ahead of Hye-Jin Choi (68) and An (72). World No. 1 Nelly Korda shot 66 and trails by four along with 2023 CME champion Amy Yang, Jeeno Thitikul, Ruoning Yin and Ayaka Furue.

The winner of the CME will claim a record-breaking $4 million paycheck. Yin, 26, won for the first time on the LPGA last season and has earned $5.2 million over the course of her LPGA career.

Yin has now pulled her second shot in the water on the fourth hole two days in a row and had hoped to hit the range after the round on Friday but ran out of daylight.

Joel Dahmen assessed four-stroke penalty at 2024 Shriners Children’s Open. Here’s why

Always have to check the bag.

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During the first round of the 2024 Shriners Children’s Open at TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas, fan-favorite Joel Dahmen was assessed a four-stroke penalty for having 15 clubs in his bag.

Dahmen made par on his opening two holes, but those scores were changed to double-bogey 6s after the blunder.

The 36-year-old has played in all three FedEx Cup Fall events so far this year, with the Shriners being the fourth, and has finished T-50 (Procore Championship), MC (Sanderson Farms Championship) and T-40 (Black Desert Championship).

In seven previous starts at TPC Summerlin, Dahmen has made it to the weekend six times and finished inside the top 10 twice.

Shriners: Leaderboard | Photos

https://twitter.com/PGATOURComms/status/1847009036400828675

Golf instruction: New rules to know in 2024

Golfweek’s Averee Dovsek explains three new rules that have been changed by the USGA in 2024.

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Staying up to date on golf rules is essential to avoiding stroke penalties.

This week, Golfweek’s fitness guru and long driver Averee Dovsek explains three new rules that have been changed by the USGA in 2024. These three rules apply to beginners to professionals.

Not everyone has time to read through the latest official rule book, but all these and more can be found online. It is crucial to know basic rules of golf, but these ones may come in handy at anytime.

Check these three rules out to stay on top of your game.

If you’re interested in any of Averee’s fitness content, click here.

If you’re looking for more instruction, click here.

Why did a PGA Tour referee stop FedEx St. Jude Championship winner Hideki Matsuyama about possible rules violation?

Did Matsuyama violate Rule 8-1 during the final round?

Did Hideki Matsuyama violate Rule 8-1 during the final round of the FedEx St. Jude Championship on Sunday? The PGA Tour determined that a violation wasn’t committed by the eventual champion, but the moment is worth closer investigating.

On the 12th hole, PGA Tour Chief Rules Referee Gary Young spoke to  Matsuyama.

Rule 8-1 from the Rules of Golf addresses ‘Players Actions That Improve Conditions Affecting the Stroke,’ and in this particular circumstance there was some concern whether Matsuyama had improved his line by tapping down his pitch mark after his second shot at the seventh hole at TPC Southwind had rolled back into a collection area. Matsuyama clearly walked up to the green and tapped down his pitch mark before playing his third shot on to the green.

“Rule 8-1 is very specific about what a player can do as it pertains to the line of play,” Young explained in a post-round interview with Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis. “It came to our attention that Hideki may have done something on his line of play.”

Young approached the Japanese star and addressed the situation with Matsuyama and his interpreter, Robert Turner. Matsuyama had just made a birdie to reach 19 under and owned a seemingly commanding five-stroke lead.

“The video showed that Hideki walked forward and stepped down with irregularity at a what turned out to be a pitch mark. At that point, it was a question of whether it was on his line of play. A couple of video angles showed that it was close, close enough to have to have that conversation with him and unfortunately we had to have that conversation mid-round with him, which is never comforting when you have to go out and talk with that player,” Young said. “But it could affect his strategy playing for the rest of the round if he is going to get a two-stroke penalty. So, I simply had to ask him the question, Hideki, on that hole, and he did recall the situation that he had walked forward. I asked him what exactly did he do and why did he do it, he just said it was something that he normally does when he has a pitch mark and he felt it was nowhere near his line of play and that was why he stepped it down.

“Following the conversation with him, I felt very comfortable that he felt it was well off his line of play and then we did get supporting video evidence from a different camera angle which clearly showed where he plays his shot and where the pitch mark was. It was a good 3 feet away. Now, some people may say, well, that’s pretty close. For that short of a shot and one of the best players in the world that is a pretty tight area you’re talking about, so, the committee felt very, very comfortable with the decision.”

Lewis pressed Young if there was any additional discussion thereafter whether a rules violation had occurred and Young answered, “In my mind, when we had that conversation, I felt a comfort level that he was well off his line of play.”

Lewis also asked why it took several holes for Matsuyama to be informed of the potential rules violation. “It took some time for the message to come to me that this potential violation had occurred. Then it took time to look for any video evidence. Next it was circulated to all of the members of the rules committee and Young also consulted with the USGA to make sure they had their support,” he said. “It felt really bad to possibly have affected him but that’s the rough part of our job.”

Matsuyama’s round went off the rails as he played Nos. 12-16 in 4 over and lost the lead temporarily to Viktor Hovland before righting the ship and making birdies on the final two holes to win by two strokes over Hovland and Xander Schauffele.

“It was really a non-issue,” Matsuyama said after the round. “They just wanted to check and make sure that the rules were kept, which they were. And it really did not affect me the rest of the day. If I was worried that I had done something wrong, that would have rattled me. But it was really a non-issue, so it was fine.”

Angry Shane Lowry sees British Open solo lead disappear (briefly) over rules controversy

Lowry knew immediately that he was in a world of trouble.

TROON, Scotland – Shane Lowry’s lead during the 152nd British Open took a hit due to a bad shot and a ruling that didn’t go his way on the 11th hole at Royal Troon Golf Club during the second round on Friday. It resulted in a double bogey but Lowry managed birdies on two of his final three holes to card 2-under 69 in breezy conditions and improve to 7-under 135.

Lowry, the 2019 Open champ who opened with 66 and added three birdies and a bogey in his first 10 holes to lead by two, yanked his second shot dead left from 176 yards at the 11th hole into a gorse bush.

“I did the hard part. I hit my drive where you could find it, which is obviously a hard thing to do on that hole. I drew a nice lie in the (right) rough. I got a little bit distracted on the right just as I was over the shot, and I kind of lost a bit of train of thought. You’re so afraid of going right there that I just snagged the club and went left,” he said.

According to the radio broadcast, Lowry blamed a photographer for distracting him. A hot mic caught him erupting at the photographer.

Lowry knew immediately that he was in a world of trouble and hit a great provisional to about 10 feet. It looked like he might escape without too much pain.

“The referee asked me going down, did I want to find my first one, and I said no. So I assumed that was OK. Then we get down there, and somebody had found it. So apparently we have to find it then, or you have to go and identify it, which I thought, if you declared it lost before it was found, that you didn’t, you didn’t have to go and identify it,” Lowry said.

British Open: Leaderboard | Photos | How to watch

However, a spectator found Lowry’s ball in the gorse bush, which meant that Lowry had no choice but to play his original ball. Lowry argued with the rules official. According to the radio reporter, he said, “Even though I told you I didn’t want to search for it.” The rules official said, “I am very sorry, but yes.”

According to the Rules of Golf, as soon as the original ball is found it is back in play and the second ball on the green is no longer an option to play.

“It’s one of those rules where common sense is thrown out,” said radio commentator Brendon de Jonge.

Lowry asked for a second opinion but the ruling stood.

“I felt like through that whole process of that 20 minutes, it was whatever it was, of taking the drop, seeing where I could drop, and I felt like I was very calm and composed and really knew that I was doing the right thing, and I felt like (caddie) Darren (Reynolds) did a great job too just kind of — he kept telling me, we have loads of time. We don’t need to rush this. We just need to do the right thing here.”

Lowry elected to take an unplayable lie. He could’ve dropped within two club lengths but it wouldn’t have given him much of a shot so instead took the option of taking the ball back on line of sight leaving himself about 70 yards. After the penalty shot, he knocked his fourth to the fringe and took two putts for a double-bogey 6. Lowry led the championship by two when he teed off at No. 11, Railway, but after his Railway nightmare, he left tied for the lead with Englishman Daniel Brown.

“Is this really going to mess with the mind of Shane Lowry?” the radio host asked.

It did not. Lowry didn’t drop another shot and finished with birdies on two of his final three holes to retake the solo lead when he headed to the clubhouse.

“To be honest, I was happy enough leaving there with a 6,” Lowry said. “It wasn’t a disaster. I was still leading the tournament.”

Mackenzie Hughes penalized two shots Saturday for showing up late to Scottish Open tee time

Not sure if jet lag can be an excuse.

Missing or being late to a tee time is never a good thing. Especially at a professional golf event.

That’s what happened to Mackenzie Hughes on Saturday, who was penalized two shots for being late to his third-round tee time at the 2024 Genesis Scottish Open at The Renaissance Club. The penalty was added to his score on the first hole, giving him a double-bogey 6.

Hughes’ tee time was scheduled for 2:45 p.m. local time in Scotland, so one can wonder how he was late.

However, the late start didn’t seem to hamper Hughes, who was 1 under for his round thru 10 holes and inside the top 20 on the leaderboard.

PGA Tour amending rule on incorrect scorecards (aka the Jordan Spieth rule), effective immediately

Spieth was disqualified from the Genesis Invitational after the second round in February for signing an incorrect scorecard.

The PGA Tour is amending its rule on when a scorecard is returned. Call it the Jordan Spieth rule.

As you may recall, Spieth was disqualified from the Genesis Invitational after the second round in February for signing an incorrect scorecard. Spieth, a three-time major winner and member of the Tour’s policy board, signed for a par on the par-3 4th hole at Riviera Country Club, but he made a bogey after missing a 5-foot putt.

As he later admitted, he had to go to the bathroom and so hastily signed his card for one less than the 2-over 73 he actually shot. In the future, he will have 15 minutes to return to the scoring area after he leaves to make a correction.

Across all our tours and other major golf organizations, a player’s scorecard is considered ‘returned’ to the Committee once the player has left the defined scoring area. In an e-mail to players and also available on the player internal web site, the Tour explained to its members that it had been working with the USGA, R&A and DP World Tour to amend this definition, with a goal of minimizing penalties or disqualifications related to scorecard errors.

The Tour announced a 15-minute window “to correct an error on his scorecard, even if he has left the scoring area.”

  • If a scorecard is validated in the scoring system and the player has left the scoring area, he may return to correct an error within 15 minutes of validation.
  • If a player has left the scoring area and an error is identified before the scorecard is validated in the scoring system, he may return to correct the error within 15 minutes of the error being identified by the scoring official.
  • If a player is in the scoring area when the 15 minutes expires, his scorecard is returned when he leaves the scoring area.

“In general, all players will have the ability to correct an error within this 15-minute period which may have previously resulted in disqualification. However, exceptions may apply when constraints within the competition limit a player’s correction time to less than 15 minutes, such as releasing tee times following the cut, starting a playoff, or the close of competition.”

The rule change is going into effect immediately on all PGA Tour sanctioned circuits as well as on the DP World Tour. Count Tour pro Michael Kim as a fan of the change: “I think it is way better this way,” he wrote on the social-media platform X. “Hopefully no more scorecard DQ’s in the future.”

It’s an antiquated rule that was overdue to be revised, but did it go far enough? Tour pro Andrew Putnam would say no.

“Such a dumb rule,” he wrote on X. “In what other sport do players keep their scores? We all have walking scorers with every group and every shot is calculated to the yard. Cmonnn [sic] people.”

The most famous penalty for a scorecard error belongs to Roberto De Vicenzo, who missed out on a playoff with Bob Goalby to settle the 1968 Masters. The likelihood of another “What a stupid I am!” moment has been diminished greatly thanks to this rule amendment.

Nasa Hataoka’s controversial DQ at 2024 ShopRite LPGA could cost her a spot in the Paris Olympics

It took till the next day for Hataoka to be informed that she’d been DQ’d.

Nasa Hataoka’s gut-wrenching disqualification from the ShopRite LPGA Classic didn’t just cost her a paycheck and chance at a title. It could cost the Japanese star a spot in the Paris Olympics, too.

The ordeal began on during the first round on Friday, when Hataoka arrived at her final hole of the day, the par-5 ninth, at 6 under. After hitting her second shot into the tall fescue right of the green, at least a dozen people got involved in the search for Hataoka’s ball.

Eventually, Hataoka later noted, it was a cameraman found the ball, and she called over a rules official to go about taking an unplayable lie.

Golf Channel’s Tom Abbott, who was involved in the search, noted his concerns on air about the search having potentially taken more than three minutes, which is the maximum amount of time players can spend looking for their ball, according to Rule 18.2.

Hataoka proceeded to get up and down for par, draining a 15-footer for 65 over the Bay Course at Seaview Resort.

It wasn’t until the next day that Hataoka was informed that she’d been disqualified from the ShopRite after LPGA officials reviewed videotape footage.

The LPGA released a statement on the DQ:

During the first round of the LPGA Shoprite Classic, Nasa Hataoka played her second shot on No. 9 into the long fescue surrounding the green, her last hole of the day. After reviewing video footage provided to the LPGA following the round, it was determined that the search for Nasa’s ball lasted longer than the three minutes allowed under Rule 18.2a.  After three minutes of search, the ball is considered lost, and the player must proceed under stroke and distance (Rule 18.2b).

Hataoka’s ball was eventually found after the search time expired. The Rules require the player whose ball is lost to proceed under stroke and distance (Rule 18.2b). When Hataoka did not play from where she had previously played from, she played from the wrong place (Rule 14.7). Because where she played from could give the player a significant advantage compared to the stroke to be made from the right place, this is considered a serious breach of Rule 14.7 with a penalty of disqualification if not corrected in time. The player had until she left the scoring area to correct this mistake per Rule 14.7.

Because Hataoka’s ball was deemed lost after three minutes expired, she played her fourth shot from the wrong place (near the green). Hataoka should’ve instead gone back to where she hit her second shot.

It is unclear why a rules official monitoring the broadcast in real-time didn’t step in.

Jenny Shin, who led after the second round, took to twitter to weigh in on the situation:

Hataoka is not in the field for next week’s Meijer LPGA Classic, which means she has only the KPMG Women’s PGA to solidify her spot on Japan’s Olympic team.

With U.S. Women’s Open champion Yuka Saso moving up to No. 6 in the world after her victory at Lancaster Country Club, Hataoka, No. 19, currently holds Japan’s second spot. Ayaka Furue, however, is hot on her heels at No. 22. Furue is currently in a share of second at the ShopRite and in prime position to pass her compatriot.

Miyu Yamashit is No. 25.

Brooks Koepka had a rules discussion at LIV Golf Houston 2024 — with Patrick Reed

There was an interesting exchange after the five-time major champ dunked one in the water.

It was a rough opening day of the LIV Golf Houston event for Brooks Koepka’s Smash GC, which fell 11 strokes off the lead after the first day of play at the Golf Club of Houston, but there was an interesting exchange after the five-time major champ dunked one in the water on the par-5 fourth hole.

Koepka wasn’t sure where the ball had crossed and gone into the water, so he needed to confer with a playing partner, who happened to be Patrick Reed.

Of course, Reed has been no stranger to rules incidents. He was the center of attention for one at the Farmers Insurance Open, which followed a two-stroke penalty at the 2019 Hero World Challenge.

And at the 2018 Arnold Palmer Invitational, Reed got into a disagreement with an official over not being allowed a free drop, which led to a bit of a contentious situation. At one point, Reed blurted out, “I guess my name needs to be Jordan Spieth, guys.”

On Friday, however, Koepka and Reed finally agreed on a spot for the Florida State product to drop and after the ball rolled back into the hazard twice, he finally placed it on the edge of the bank.

Koepka made bogey and finished the opening round at 2 under, five strokes behind leaders Calen Surratt, Martin Kaymer and Adrian Meronk.

The second round begins on Saturday at 1:15 p.m.

Why are pros using laser rangefinders, GPS at the 2024 PGA Championship?

A reminder, this is the only major that allows the devices.

The PGA of America announced back in 2021 that it would allow the use of distance-measuring devices in its three professional major championships – PGA Championship, KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship – starting that year.

The devices made their first appearance at the 2021 PGA Championship at Kiawah Island Golf Resort’s Ocean Course in South Carolina.

“We’re always interested in methods that may help improve the flow of play during our Championships,” said Jim Richerson, then the president of the PGA of America. “The use of distance-measuring devices is already common within the game and is now a part of the Rules of Golf. Players and caddies have long used them during practice rounds to gather relevant yardages.”

The PGA of America became the first major body to allow the devices in all its premier professional events. There had been speculation for years that such devices might help speed play, as players and caddies don’t have to walk off yardages to sprinkler heads and other fixed positions.

PGA CHAMPIONSHIP: How to watch | Tournament hub | Friday tee times

The United States Golf Association’s Rules of Golf have allowed the use of laser rangefinders and GPS devices in casual play and tournaments since 2006, but a local rule allowed a tournament committee to ban such devices. At elite professional levels of play, the devices still have not been embraced for competition rounds, though they have been allowed in the U.S. Amateur since 2014. They are still not allowed during competition rounds at PGA Tour events or at the U.S. Open and British Opens.

In keeping with Rule 4.3a (1), the devices allowed can report only on distance and direction. Devices that calculate elevation changes or wind speeds, or that suggest a club for a player as well as other data, will not be allowed.

2024 PGA Championship
Wyndham Clark checks the distance to the 11th hole during the second round of the 2024 PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club. (Photo: Clare Grant/Louisville Courier Journal)

The devices aren’t new for the pros, many of whom already use laser rangefinders and GPS in practice rounds.

Many laser rangefinders provide information on elevation changes and “plays-like” distances. Most of those devices come with a switch to turn off such information, but many elite players opt for devices that do not provide elevation and other data as a precaution against forgetting to turn off those functions.

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