Golf is a funny game. There is no other way to put it.
Last week I came across an interesting story about a PGA tournament. The details are below.
“Tour Officials said that Cink, on the 15th hole of the third round, ran into a recent ruling by a USGA ruling on Rule 13-4a. Cink apparently stood inside a bunker to play a ball that wasn't in the hazard and then hit his next shot into a bunker, at which point he raked the bunker he was standing in. The UGSA recently ruled, "that the player is in breach of Rule 13-4a by testing the condition of a similar hazard. As his ball did not lie in the first bunker, Exception 2 the Rule 13-14 does not apply. Additionally, the answer is the same regardless of whether at the time of the raking he knew his ball lay in the other bunker.
This is, according to the rules, a no-no: "Testing the surface of a hazard", it results in a two stroke penalty. Unfortunately, no one caught the violation at the time, and as such Cink finished his round and signed his card w/o a penalty. So, when he called a rule official this morning to self-report the apparent rules violation, he was disqualified for having signed an incorrect scorecard. "
To sum up:
-His ball landed a few inches away from a hazard.
-He stood in the sand to play his ball.
-He hit his ball into another hazard.
-He went to the next hazard and made his shot.
-His CADDY took 2 seconds to rake his tracks out of the first bunker as he was on the way to the next hazard.
-This is a 2-stroke penalty for “testing the conditions of a similar hazard”.
You heard me. The act of his caddy raking his footprints out of the first bunker is constituted as testing the conditions of a similar hazard. It would have been fine if the ball had landed a few inches over and actually touched the first hazard. In that case he was playing form one hazard into another.
Stupid. I can’t describe it any other way. It is just as bad as Walruss getting DQ’d for placing a towel down under his knees for a shot from under a low tree a few years ago. Apparently, some thought he was improving his lie. I personally thought it was acceptable to kneel on a towel instead of the mud to make a shot but I apparently have a different version of reality than PGA rules officials.
I love golf but the method I play involves a few less rules than those used by the PGA.
Hit the ball, laugh at Peters bad shot, hit it again, listen to Peter laugh at my bad shot, hit it in the hole, start over. My version rocks, and you don’t get in trouble for kneeling on a towel in the mud, in fact I am willing to let you lose a stroke if you kneel in the mud.
