Tag: Rules of Golf

Two-shot penalty costs this Korn Ferry Tour golfer a PGA Tour card for 2024

Tuten will get a chance to try to make up for the gaffe, but he’ll have to wait two months.

The season-ending Korn Ferry Tour Championship determines which 30 golfers will gain promotion to the PGA Tour for 2024. With 16 of those spots already locked up, that left everyone battling for the other 14.

Shad Tuten was in a good position to grab one of those spots, as he was sitting 29th on the Korn Ferry Tour Points List heading into the 72-hole, no-cut finale. He then posted scores of 69-73-69 over the first three days to sit just outside the top 10.

But on Sunday, Tuten signed for a 76, which included a two-shot penalty at the soggy Victoria National Golf Club in Newburgh, Indiana.

According to the Korn Ferry Tour: “Shad Tuten was assessed a two-stroke penalty on hole No. 15 under preferred lies local rule E-3, turning a 2-over 74 into a 4-over 76. Tuten also fell from projected No. 30 on the Korn Ferry Tour Points List to No. 32.”

Chief referee Jim Duncan provided context on the ruling.

When it was all said and done, Tuten slid back from the No. 29 to No. 32 on the outside looking in at the 2024 PGA Tour season.

Tuten will get a chance to try to make up for the gaffe, but he’ll have to wait two months. Players who finished Nos. 31-60 on the KFT points list have earned exemptions to the Final Stage of PGA Tour Q-School, where the top five finishers and ties will earn their 2024 PGA Tour cards. The final stage is Dec. 14-17 at TPC Sawgrass Dye’s Valley Course as well as Sawgrass Country Club in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.

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Carlota Ciganda refuses slow-play penalty, gets DQ’d from LPGA’s Evian major

The DQ was for signing an incorrect scorecard.

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Carlota Ciganda, a two-time winner on the LPGA and a five-time member of the European Solheim Cup team, was disqualified after the first round of the 2023 Amundi Evian Championship, the fourth LPGA major of the season.

The official reason was for signing an incorrect scorecard, but the situation arose out of a slow-play penalty assessed on Ciganda’s final hole of the round. The Spaniard refused to acknowledge a two-shot penalty, signed her card without adding the two shots, then was DQ’d.

Ciganda was 3 over after her round, not counting the penalty strokes. The penalty would have pushed her score to 5-over 76, and she would have trailed first-round leader Paula Reto by 12 shots.

Ciganda was playing with fellow Arizona State alum Anna Nordqvist as well as Celine Herbin. Officially Group 14, the threesome started on the 10th hole Thursday at Evian Resort Golf Club in Evain-Les-Bains, France.

When they got to the seventh hole, their 16th hole of the day, they were notified by rules officials that they were out of position.

After failing to make up time, the group was put on the clock on the eighth hole, their 17th of the round. On the ninth hole, Ciganda took too long to play and was assessed a two-stroke penalty per the LPGA’s pace of play policy.

As was her right, she appealed to the advance and lead rules officials but was denied, meaning the two-stroke penalty would stick. She opted to sign her scorecard without accounting for those two strokes. Ciganda was told if she left the official recording area having turned in a signed incorrect scorecard, she would be disqualified. The LPGA said she left of her own accord, leading to the DQ.

An LPGA spokesperson told Golfweek: “Rule 3.3b(3) states that if a returned score is lower than the actual score, the player is disqualified from the competition. The exception to this Rule does not apply because Ciganda was aware of the penalty strokes received and upheld before signing her scorecard and leaving the recording area.”

Ciganda tied for 12th in her most recent event, the Dana Open, following a tie for 20th at the U.S. Women’s Open and a tie for third at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. She ranks 14th on this year’s money list with $876,447, and she is No. 31 in the Rolex Women’s World Rankings. She won both her LPGA titles in 2016.

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Professional golfer busted for cheating, confesses he did it

Players first noticed something wasn’t right about his 36-hole total of 3-under during lunch and reported it.

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Justin Doeden forgot the saying cheaters never win.

The 28-year-old pro on Monday confessed he cheated last week at PGA Tour Canada’s Ottawa Open.

He stood accused of changing his score on the final hole of his second round at Eagle Creek Golf Club from a 7 to a 5 after his card already had been signed by his playing partner. That brazen act meant his incorrect score would be good enough to make the 36-hole cut by one stroke at T-60. It also would have prevented 13 other players from making the cut and deprived them of earning a paycheck for the week.

Ryan French of the Monday Q Info first reported the story.

“At scoring, the player who kept Doeden’s card confirmed his scores and signed it,” French wrote. “Doeden then asked for the card, saying he wanted to double-check some things. Not thinking anything of it, the player handed the card to Doeden and left the scoring area. When he gave it to Doeden, the 18th hole showed a 7.”

Players first noticed something wasn’t right about his 36-hole total of 3-under during lunch and reported it to tournament officials who discovered Doeden’s use of an eraser to change his score. Doeden withdrew from the tournament during the officials’ investigation. He initially did not respond to a request for comment from French.

On Monday, he confessed he cheated in a social media post and asked for forgiveness.

“I am here to confess of the biggest mistake I have made in my life to date,” he wrote. “I cheated in golf. This is not who I am. I let my sponsors down. I let my competitors down. I let my family down. I let myself down. I pray for your forgiveness. John 1:9.”

Doeden, who played collegiately at the University of Minnesota and has competed in one event each on the Korn Ferry and PGA Tours while spending the bulk of his time on PGA Tour Canada and PGA Tour Latinoamerica, likely will be suspended under the Tour’s catch-all of “conduct unbecoming” but we’ll never know.

“Per Tour policy, the matter — and any related disciplinary action — will be handled internally,” a spokesperson for the PGA Tour told the media.

Regardless, Doeden will wear the scarlet letter of being a cheater, and that will be an enormous burden for him to bear.

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Here’s why the Rules of Golf are constantly being evaluated

“As long as golfers are out there playing the game, the rules are going to keep changing.”

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(Editor’s note: This is the third installment of a three-part series on the Rules of Golf. The first part was a look at the five most-searched rules in 2023 and the second discussed the USGA’s rules hotline.)

The Rules of Golf govern every shot during a professional round or even an outing with friends, but they’re never in the front of your mind when lining up a 10-foot putt or a tee shot.

Where you can take relief from, how you can mark a ball on a green and how to deal with ground under repair are all common issues one may face during a round of golf. Yet the rules guiding the game are constantly changing, and sometimes it can be hard for a weekend golfer to keep up with the changes.

However, that doesn’t stop the United States Golf Association and R&A from continually evaluating the rules to make sure they’re up to par with today’s standards and the way golf is played.

“As long as golfers are out there playing the game, the rules are going to keep changing,” said Craig Winter, the USGA’s senior director of Rules of Golf. “That’s true of any sport and society in general. Rules obviously help golfers understand how the game is played.”

As far as the USGA, which helps govern the game of golf with the R&A, Winter said the organization is always taking feedback on rules and whether changes need to be made.

Winter said there’s a committee, which includes PGA Tour, LPGA, PGA of America and other representation, that meets three times a year to discuss the Rules of Golf. During those meetings, the committee and its experts will talk about the rules, whether they think some need to be changed and try to answer questions that were submitted.

The USGA and R&A partnered for joint governance in 1952, and new rules have been announced in four-year cycles ever since. It changed with the modernized rules update in 2019, meaning the new four-year cycle put rule changes at the beginning of this year with the next to come in 2027.

“The joint meetings are a really good chance for us to get together and get deep into what are you looking for with this particular item, this particular reason for change,” Winter said.

There are also quarterly clarifications that can come out on rules, including one that did in July.

Winter said the USGA receives nearly 15,000 questions a year regarding the Rules of Golf. Although the USGA doesn’t discuss all of them among the committee, the ones that get them thinking and stir up a conversation on whether a change needs to be made are brought up on the bigger stage.

“We live and breath the rules,” Winter said. “Especially as a staff, that’s what our job is. We’re always thinking about the rules. Anything you’re thinking about, you’re thinking about how it is, how it was and how it could be. That process just kind of feeds itself.”

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Did you know the USGA has a rules hotline? The stories are comical

Rulings can get interesting on the golf course. Just ask the USGA.

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(Editor’s note: This is the second installment of a three-part series on the Rules of Golf. The first part was a look at the five most-searched rules in 2023.)

Golf is complicated. The rules are complicated. So much so that PGA Tour players still ask to speak with an official during the simplest of rulings to ensure they don’t mistakenly receive a penalty.

And if Tour players can ask for help, so can you.

The United States Golf Association offers a helpline that amateurs around the country can call to ask about the rules of the game.

According to the USGA’s Todd Stice, the organization receives 15,000 rules inquiries — calls, emails, texts — per year and already eclipsed the 10,000 mark for 2023 on July 1.

“Shows you how much the game of golf is booming. Everyone is playing and loving it and wanting to be a part of it,” Stice told Golfweek.

If you ever encounter a situation on the course that entices you to call the hotline, Stice says there’s one thing that will help you and the USGA official et to the solution more efficiently.

“The biggest thing is getting the facts clear to us. The rules are actually very black and white, it’s those facts that are fuzzy. Making sure we know exactly what happened. A person can call me up and just start talking me through a situation and I got to be like, ‘Okay, was this match play or stroke play?’ The rules really fork quite a bit when you’re talking about the differences there.

“That’s the biggest thing. Just making sure that we’re aware of exactly what happened.”

As you’d expect, there have been memorable situations the USGA has had to handle.

“I got a call from a woman who was driving in her car and she had a situation where a ball was in the middle of the fairway and the player put their club down and started waggling it and it moved the ball. And she’s like, ‘So I think that’s a stroke and I just, you know, play it as it lies.’ And I said, ‘Well, the ruling is going to be a little different.’

“Then immediately her husband is in the car, comes on and says, ‘Okay, that was me. What’s the ruling?’ And they start going back and forth at each other and the wife thought it was one thing, she goes, ‘No, it’s a stroke, you play it as it lies,’ and the husband says, ‘There’s no penalty, you put it back,’ and I’m sitting there and they’re both going at each other and I’m like, ‘You guys are you both wrong, I’m sorry.’

“And when I explained it to them, I’m like ‘Alright, there’s a one-stroke penalty and you have to replace it, but it’s not a stroke.’ And they both got quiet for 20 seconds and I’m just kind of sitting there, twiddling my thumbs going, ‘Did you hear me?’ It’s so much fun when you get situations like that where people are — they’re trying to be right. These two were playing against each other and they just went back and forth and they were at each other’s throats until I cleared it up, and they both hung up. You could tell both of them were a little grumpy at the end. But that’s what this game does to us. This game is so fun and passionate.”

While Stice’s first tale was about a married couple, his second was about a dog.

“This one I got about 10 days ago. The guy calls me up on the phone and he’s already laughing. He says, ‘I hit this tee shot on this par 3 that was going to the right of the green and we saw a dog that was just kind of running around over there and didn’t think anything of it, just a dog loose on the golf course. The ball one-hopped, the dog jumps up into the air and catches it in his mouth and runs off into his yard, out of bounds.’ And he’s just laughing as he’s telling this story.

“I started laughing with him, too, and he’s like, ‘We didn’t know what to do, we have no clue what happens here.’

Stice eventually gave the group his ruling, saying the ball is dropped within a club length of where they thought the dog caught it and there’s no stroke penalty involved.

If you’re interested in contacting the USGA, or want to save the information for future rounds, here’s how to get in touch.

Phone: 908-326-1850
Email: rules@usga.org

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These are the top five most-searched Rules of Golf on Google in 2023

It never hurts to make sure you know the most common Rules of Golf.

The Rules of Golf can trip up players at every level due to their complexity and the potential for misinterpretation.

Even the pros can make errors when it comes to applying the rules correctly. Under pressure or in high-stakes situations, a player may misunderstand or forget a specific procedure, leading to a costly mistake.

There are 25 rules in the U.S. Golf Association’s official Rules of Golf. Within each of the rules, there are further explanations for specific situations. There are also 70 defined terms, such as “abnormal course condition” or “teeing area.”

Golfers tend to know some rules in general but likely not all of them.

USGA: Get your copy of the Rules of Golf

As part of a series of stories on the USGA and the rules, this list has been compiled to highlight the most-searched rules in 2023. As a disclaimer, when Golfweek did this search of “golf rules,” a few of the top ones had to do with the proposals on the golf ball or the 90-degree rule, which is really just course etiquette.

Ron Gaines, Golfweek’s Director of Rules & Competition, contributed to this article.

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LPGA rookie disqualified from 2023 U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach

Vongtaveelap’s caddie used a distance-measuring device.

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PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Thailand’s Natthakritta Vongtaveelap was disqualified from the first round of the 78th U.S. Women’s Open after her caddie, Jinsup Kim, used a distance-measuring device on multiple holes.

Vongtaveelap, a promising 20-year-old rookie from Thailand, was even par through five holes at Pebble Beach Golf Links and competing in her first U.S. Women’s Open on Thursday.

The USGA released a statement that read:

“During the first round, on multiple occasions, the caddie for Natthakritta Vongtaveelap used a distance measuring device, which is not allowed in the U.S. Women’s Open. The first breach is a general penalty, and the second breach resulted in disqualification.”

Distance measuring devices were allowed at the recent KPMG Women’s PGA at Baltusrol. The only places on tour they are not allowed are here at the U.S. Women’s Open and the AIG Women’s British Open.

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USGA admits incorrect ruling given to Rory McIlroy at 2023 U.S. Open

An executive with the USGA defended McIlroy, as well as the veteran official who gave the ruling.

It’s been just more than a week since Rory McIlroy lost the 2023 U.S. Open to Wyndham Clark by one shot after he made a crucial bogey on the par 5 14th hole, his lone blemish of the final round.

And if you can think back to Sunday at Los Angeles Country Club, you’ll remember McIlroy got a favorable ruling from an embedded lie that allowed him to drop in the bunker to only make bogey to remain in contention.

On Monday, an executive with the United States Golf Association told Sports Illustrated that McIlroy took an incorrect drop after consulting with a veteran rules official.

“The nearest point of relief was mis-identified; it should have been directly behind the ball,” said the USGA’s chief governance officer, Thomas Pagel. “If there’s no area immediately behind the ball, you go to nearest point in the general area. But if you look at where the ball was embedded, there was a grassy area below and that should have been the starting point.”

2023 U.S. Open
Rory McIlroy gets relief from an embedded ball on the 14th green during the final round of the 123rd U.S. Open Championship at The Los Angeles Country Club on June 18, 2023, in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

McIlroy’s third shot to the 14th green got caught in thick grass surrounding a greenside bunker, and after a short search his playing partner, Scottie Scheffler, found the ball. Rules official Courtney Myrhum, who has officiated more than 60 USGA championships, confirmed the ball was embedded and allowed McIlroy to take a free drop.

“His ball was 100 percent embedded,” Pagel said in agreement with the official. “And an embedded ball not in sand is entitled to relief. Now Rory did everything at the discretion of the referee. In her discretion, her judgment was that the reference point for relief was to the side of the ball. And from a ruling standpoint, that’s the end of the story.”

Pagel continued to defend Myrhum, noting how “she’s an extremely well-qualified referee and she did everything in her judgment where to operate the drop. However, after further review, it was determined that there was a spot in the general area immediately behind the ball that was the reference point for relief.”

Because there was space between the ball and the bunker, McIlroy was entitled to a one-club length drop, no closer to the hole, from the “the general area” of the embedded spot, meaning a drop from the bunker was incorrect.

“If you look at where the ball embedded, just below should have been the starting point (for taking one club length relief),” Pagel said. “But even if his club length had been measured from behind the ball, he still would have been dropping on the shelf from where he played from. As it was, he measured the club length from the top of the wall to the right. As he dropped the ball out of that area, he had to drop a second time.”

“When you start dealing with vertical faces, that’s where the question is,” Pagel added. “In this case, there was a lot going on. But there was a place behind the ball where he could have started to measure.”

“From where he started measuring from, he didn’t get a break. And he did all of this at the discretion of the referee. He wasn’t doing anything to gain an advantage and as he was told how to apply the rule on where to drop.”

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Golf instruction: Dealing with loose impediments and movable obstructions

Golfweek‘s Averee Dovsek demonstrates how to deal with loose impediments and movable obstructions.

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Every golfer has dealt with leaves being around their ball in the fairway or a rake being in the way near the green. Lucky for you, you can move those objects without getting a penalty for it, if you do it the correct way.

This week, Golfweek‘s fitness guru and long driver Averee Dovsek demonstrates how to deal with loose impediments and movable obstructions including the aforementioned leaves and rakes.

Keep these tips in mind the next time you have to deal with one of these objects.

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

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

Golf instruction: How to properly move your ball mark

Golfweek‘s Averee Dovsek demonstrates how to properly mark and move your ball out of your playing partners line.

Golf rules can be confusing and some golfers have been making simple ruling mistakes without even knowing it. It’s easy to get in the habit of incorrect rulings when there is no rules official playing with your Sunday group.

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This week, Golfweek‘s fitness guru and long driver Averee Dovsek is demonstrating how to properly mark and move your ball out of your playing partners line.

When done incorrectly, this can cost you penalty strokes and upset your playing partners. Send this to a golfer who needs a ruling refresh or is brand new to the game.

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

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