Let’s break them down.

Did the ball move?

The first incident of the day happened on Augusta National’s sixth hole. Collin Morikawa was standing over a 37-foot birdie putt and looked like he was about to hit it, before he promptly backed off.

Morikawa, who shot a three-under 69, exchanged some words with his playing partners. At that point, the camera panned close to show Morikawa placing his golf ball a few inches in front of his coin on the ground, then showed Morikawa moving his coin towards his ball. The latter part of the footage made the rounds on social media, sparking some initial confusion. It was quickly cleared up when it became clear Morikawa’s ball had moved unintentionally and not due to Morikawa making a stroke. After notifying his playing partners, Morikawa was simply returning his ball to his original spot.

Here’s the full video…Ball moved as I addressed it, so I threw the coin down in no specific place, replaced the ball to the original spot and then moved my marker to the original spot (from where I threw it). I play by the rules, I promise. https://t.co/HQhIv68vKE

— Collin Morikawa (@collin_morikawa) April 7, 2023

It falls under the Rule 13.1d in the Rules of Golf, which has been recently updated and is a good one for the rest of us to keep in mind. Because Morikawa’s ball had moved down the slope accidentally, unintentionally and through no attempt of his own, Morikawa marked the spot where his ball had moved to, and moved it back to where it was. Morikawa would’ve had to play the ball in the new spot had he not marked it already, but he had, so back to the original spot it went.

Free advice?

If you go back and watch on the "Holes 15 and 16" feed, it looks like Koepka's caddie says "5" to Woodland's caddie after Brooks' 2nd shot.

Which, at first glance, looked like he was saying that Brooks hit 5-iron (Woodland had not hit yet). https://t.co/hd2yctOqDC

— No Laying Up (@NoLayingUp) April 6, 2023

As outlined under rule 10.2a, golfers aren’t allowed to give or ask other golfers for advice. On the 15th hole on Thursday, there was a question about whether Brooks Koepka’s caddie, Ricky Elliott, had signalled to Gary Woodland’s team that Koepka had hit a 5-iron into the 15th hole. All involved looked into the incident with officials after the round, and no further action was taken because, as an official statement from Augusta National confirmed, “all involved were adamant that no advice was given or requested.”

After his round, Koepka, who co-leads the tournament after a seven-under 65, said Woodland had only asked him about the club after the shots had been hit.

“We looked at it when we got back in,” Koepka said. “Gary and caddie had no idea what we were hitting; they didn’t even know — I know that fact because [Woodland] asked me what we hit walking off, when we were walking down.”

Of course, had the tournament committee deemed that Koepka’s caddie gave advice to Woodland’s caddie, breaking the rules, Koepka could have received two-shot penalty. And had Woodland’s caddied asked for it, Woodland could have also received a two-shot penalty.

The post Illegal advice? Moving ball? 2 Masters rules controversies, explained appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Last week, it was Xander Schauffele who had social media all hopped up when he was granted a free drop despite his ball being up against a tree in the third round of the WM Phoenix Open. On Saturday at the Genesis Invitational, it was Jon Rahm, the 54-hole leader at 15-under, who had Golf Twitter breaking out their collective magnifying glass and searching for clues.

The situation: at the par-4 third, the Spaniard badly pulled his tee shot into the trees left of the fairway. His ball actually came to rest in some sort of fenced area that some were referring to as a parking lot, which was not the case. It was more of a staging area for equipment, one that is referred to as a TIO (temporary immovable obstruction). Grandstands and tents are the most typical TIOs, but this was neither. The shot was so wayward that Rahm wound up hitting a provisional, though he was almost positive it was a TIO, which he would be granted free relief from.

“I was 99.9 per cent sure it was TIO,” Rahm said afterward. “But take advantage of the rules and hit a provisional at least. If I hit it good I have a different visual in mind going through the round. And that .9 percent is just in case. I don’t want to be walking back up to the tee and if I can, just saving time as well.”

Rahm took serious advantage, as this nice graphic from CBS Sports’ Kyle Porter shows:

Jon Rahm hit his drive somewhere back in here and got TIO relief in the rough. pic.twitter.com/ENngB5GE7H

— Kyle Porter (@KylePorterCBS) February 18, 2023

Of course, the thought among golf fans with a seriously watchful eye is that wayward shots should be punished more harshly than this. Here, Rahm got a free drop back in play with an unobstructed look at the green, leading to a par save. This comes one day after Rahm got an all-time lucky bounce off a grandstand right of the 17th green, which resulted in a kick-in eagle. Considering he is currently leading Max Homa by three shots, these are two moments that could loom very large on Sunday evening.

Wait so Rahm just hit one into the parking lot/broadcast compound of 3 and is gonna get TIO relief? pic.twitter.com/QuqyieLXiV

— Tron Carter (@TronCarterNLU) February 18, 2023

Rahm is 1-0 with a major title when getting free drops from TIO fences protecting parking lots

— Chris Murphy (@CS_Murph) February 18, 2023

Did Rahm just get TIO relief? After he hit a dinger into the parking lot?

— Josh Bennett (@JishSwish) February 18, 2023

As Rahm explained, what he did was completely within the rules, no matter what anyone thinks of it. He’s certainly not the first to take advantage, and he won’t be the last. There’s no telling how many times stuff like this happens with players who aren’t the focal point of the broadcast, either.

When asked if he felt he should be punished more harshly for a poor drive, Rahm simply replied: “No.”

“They needed that for the tournament,” Rahm said of the TIO. “On a regular day, there’s nothing there and I would be able to play my golf ball from where it was. So no.”

The post Jon Rahm made no apologies for TIO relief that riled up Golf Twitter on Saturday at Riviera appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

All that said, the current Rules of Golf can still leave you scratching your head. When trying to legislate for a game that’s played over wide spaces that incorporates any number of varied circumstances, naturally there will be confusion and questions.

To help golfers who might be only loosely familiar with the Rules — or avid players trying to become more than casual acquaintances with them — we talked to Kendall Dunovant, an assistant manager on the rules team at the USGA, to help identify some rules scenarios that still require a bit of nuance to understand.

Below are 10 common circumstances golfers are likely to run into at some point on the course, and what they should know in order to quickly — and correctly — keep their round moving.

• • •

Your ball doesn’t have to be touching an immovable obstruction to get relief
(Rule 16.1)

Rules of Golf, ©2019 The United States Golf Association and R&A Rules Limited. Reprinted with the permission of the USGA

Where and how to take proper relief anywhere on the course can be confusing, but one area in particular that trips up causal players is immovable obstructions. We’re talking about sprinkler heads, drains, cart paths or any other man-made object that cannot be moved without “unreasonable effort” or causing damage to the course.
Part of the reason for this, according to Dunovant, is that golfers have a mis-perception that a ball must be touching the obstruction to receive relief. In fact, you can take relief if the obstruction merely interferes with the area of your swing or your stance. One important thing to remember when taking said relief is that you must take “complete” relief from the obstruction. In other words, if you’re standing on a cart path, you must make sure that after taking relief, the cart path is no longer impeding your stance, swing or lie before hitting your next shot.
One more thing: You can take relief from immovable obstructions anywhere on the course except if your ball is in a penalty area or when your ball is in a lie that is clearly unreasonable to be played (such as if it’s nestled in a bush).

• • •

You can touch the sand in a bunker … sometimes
(Rule 12.2)

When the USGA and R&A approved the modernized rules, they made several fundamental changes that helped everyday golfers. One of the biggest was regarding bunkers, where the rules were relaxed so players weren’t wasting time nervously tiptoeing in the sand trying to avoid anything that might constitute a penalty. Golfers can now touch the sand in a variety of instances without worry, so long as they’re not purposely attempting to test the sand while they’re doing it.
Among the things that are now permitted:
Placing a club or other equipment in the sand (if you’re between clubs and you drop one you’re not using, it’s fine if it’s in the bunker).
Hitting the sand in anger or frustration (it’s not a great look, but doesn’t come with a penalty).
Leaning on a club in a bunker (as when you might be waiting for another player to hit a shot).
Digging your feet into the sand when preparing to hit a shot.
Removing loose impediments like pebbles, leaves and pinecones (provided you don’t cause the ball to move in doing so).
Conversely, here’s what you still aren’t allowed:
Grounding your club at address in the sand prior to the stroke.
Touching the sand during a practice swing or with your backswing.
Deliberately touching the sand to test its condition or learn information to help you in making your next stroke.

• • •

You can ground your club in a penalty area
(Rule 17.1)

Similar to bunkers, the USGA and R&A made substantial changes to what golfers can do in penalty areas. The biggest? There are no longer special rules that apply to you when playing from a penalty area. So now you’re allowed to ground your club and take practice swings like you would elsewhere on the course. You can also remove loose impediments so long as you don’t move your ball, improve your lie or improve the conditions affecting your stroke.

• • •

You can accidentally hit your ball on the green with no penalty …
(Rule 9.4)

The green is yet another place where the rules have gotten friendlier. Say you accidentally cause your ball to move on the putting green, even with a practice swing (á la Matthew Wolff at the WGC-Concession). You can replace the ball with no penalty. Same if you cause your ball marker to move.
There’s also no penalty if your ball moves because of natural forces (such as wind or water). However, where you play your ball from after it moves varies. If you had already marked your ball on the green, replaced it and now a gust of wind comes up, you should return the ball to where it was when you marked it. (Dunovant says think of the ball as having “owned” that spot by virtue of being lifted and replaced there). If your ball moves before you’ve marked it, you don’t replace the ball at all, just play from the new spot — even if that spot is now off the green.

• • •

… And on the tee box
(Rule 6.2)

Zach Johnson has won two major championships, but he’s also known for this infamous tee shot at the 2019 Masters.

Well that's a first. ?pic.twitter.com/w9pBZex6Cd

— Golf Digest (@GolfDigest) April 12, 2019

If you’ve got a golf buddy who says” “Ha, he’s lying 1”, make sure he knows he’s just made an awful joke … and that he’s wrong. Unless a player was intending strike the ball, it’s not considered a stroke if he or she caused their ball to be knocked off the tee. There is no penalty, plus under Rule 6.2b(5), the player can retee the ball and go on … embarrassed but still lying 0.

• • •

You can’t always hit a provisional ball
(Rule 18.3)

Hitting a provisional ball is allowed under the Rules in the interest of saving time when you believe your original ball might be out of bounds or lost OUTSIDE a penalty area. You must, however, announce that you’re playing a provisional, or the next shot you hit will be considered in play as if you took a stroke-and-distance penalty.
There is, however, a time when you’re not allowed to hit a provisional: When you believe a ball is lost INSIDE a penalty area. Dunovant says this is because if the ball is in the penalty area, you have multiple relief options to choose from. If you’ve hit a provisional, you’ve gotten to preview one of those options (re-hitting from the previous spot), which might shade what relief option you take.
One more thing about hitting a provisional: If you hit one off the tee and it lands in the middle of the fairway and you’re pretty sure your original ball will be in a precarious spot if it’s somehow found, you can elect not to search for the original ball. Though you cannot declare your ball lost, if you play your provisional ball from a place nearer the hole than the estimated spot of your original ball, your provisional becomes your ball in play. This is important to note because if the original ball is found before you’ve played the provisional, either by you or somebody else, and is in bounds, you must now play that original. And if the lie is unplayable, you can’t just use your provisional ball. You must take relief for an unplayable lie, which might mean you still have to go back to the tee and hit another shot.

• • •

Your ball is not considered embedded if somebody stepped on it
(Rule 16.3)

How to determine if you have an embedded ball and what relief you’re entitled to became a hot-button issue when Patrick Reed encountered the situation during the third round of the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines. While many who followed his actions at home questioned Reed’s tactics, by the letter of the rule book he proceeded correctly.
Under Rule 16.4, a player can mark and lift a ball to see if it lies in a condition where relief is allowed. If you proceed under this rule and it’s determined that the ball isn’t embedded, you replace the ball on its original spot and play from there. If the ball does meet the objective conditions that define being embedded, a player can measure one club length, no nearer the hole, from the spot directly behind where the ball became embedded (so the pitch mark isn’t in the relief area) and take a free drop.
What defines if a ball is embedded? First, the ball must be in your own pitch mark as a result of the previous stroke. That means that if your ball is plugged in the ground because somebody stepped on it or ran over it with a cart, the ball is not embedded. The ball also must be at least partially below the surface of the ground. So if the ball is just in really deep grass but resting on the surface, it’s not embedded under the Rules.

• • •

You’re only OB if your entire ball is OB
(Rule 18.2)

While tricky at times because OB boundaries aren’t always continuous on golf courses, the standard for determining if a ball is out of bounds is straight forward: the entire ball needs to be out of bounds for the ball to be considered OB. So if there’s a painted line and half the ball is on the painted line and half is on the course, the ball is in play. If there are stakes where you might use string from stake-to-stake but you don’t have string and you’re eyeballing it, if a part of the ball is on the course, you’re in play. If the entire ball is touching the painted line, none touching the course, then it’s OB.

Rules of Golf, ©2019 The United States Golf Association and R&A Rules Limited. Reprinted with the permission of the USGA

Maybe you get lucky and your ball remained in play, but now it’s near an OB boundary and that OB boundary is a chain link fence that inhibits your swing. In that situation, unfortunately, there’s no relief from the boundary object. You’ll have to play hard, Dunovant says, or you can take unplayable ball relief for one penalty stroke.
One other note: If your ball is in bounds, you are allowed to be standing out of bounds and still play the shot.

• • •

You must correct hitting a wrong ball, even though it will cost you
(Rule 6.3c)

You hit your drive into the rough off the tee, walk to where you think your ball is and hit your second shot short of the green. You chip your ball up on the green with your third but when you mark it you realise it’s not your ball. Now what? In match play, the hole is over because the penalty for playing a wrong ball is loss of hole. In stroke play, the proper way to proceed is to correct your mistake. That means that you need to go back and play your original ball. Hopefully, you will be able to find it, and if you do, you add two strokes as the penalty for playing the wrong ball, but you don’t count any of the strokes you hit with the wrong ball. You’re hitting 4 and you play on.

If you can’t find your original ball within three minutes of searching, it is then determined to be lost. Unfortunately, now you must take the stroke-and-distance penalty for this and return to the tee. Once there, you add the two strokes for playing the wrong ball, and now you’re hitting 5.

• • •

Red penalty areas give you three relief options, yellow give you two
(Rule 17.1)

There is one notable difference between the options a player has when taking relief after hitting a ball into a red penalty area versus yellow. Red stakes allow players to also take lateral relief (up to two club-lengths no nearer the hole) from where the ball entered the penalty area in addition to returning to the spot from the previous shot and back-on-the-line relief where you can drop anywhere on an imaginary line drawn from the hole through the spot where the ball last crossed into the penalty area. The last two are the lone options if the penalty area is yellow. All options require a player take a one-stroke penalty, but the player does also have the option to play the ball as it lies.

The post Golf’s 10 most misunderstood rules appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The thing is, a whiff is not limited to the beginner golfer who simply cannot make contact until their third or fourth hack. A whiff can happen to any of us at any moment, particularly in some thick rough, or when facing a tricky lie out of the fescue or somewhere deep in the woods as you attempt to punch out sideways Club Pro Guy-style.

Hell, it can even happen to one of the best players on the planet. It did in June 2021 at the Memorial Tournament. Collin Morikawa was attempting to hit a flop shot out of the juicy Muirfield Village rough, only for his club to go directly under the ball. “I believe that was a whiff,” said a shocked Dottie Pepper on the CBS broadcast.

The rough at Muirfield Village is brutal. pic.twitter.com/Gc67SlcRTV

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) June 6, 2021

It sure was, Dottie. And for those wondering if it counted, it sure did. Morikawa went on to lose the tournament in a playoff to Patrick Cantlay. One costly whiff.

Now, you may be thinking: “Well, yeah, that’s the PGA Tour. Of course it counts. When I’m playing on the weekend with my buddies I’m not taking a stroke for that.” That’s fine, but you are technically cheating.

As far as the Rules of Golf are concerned, the thing you need to know about a whiff and whether to count it all comes down to intent. As long as you intended to hit the ball and you whiff, it counts. If you accidentally hit it on a practice swing, as Zach Johnson infamously did at the 2019 Masters, it does not count as a stroke because he did not intend to hit the ball, which was easily provable. But if you meant to, and missed, it counts. As the Rules of Golf defines it, a stroke is made with “the forward movement of a club made to strike the ball”, which is quite literally what a whiff is if you’ve had the unfortunate pleasure of experiencing one.

The good news is there is no penalty, just an added stroke to your score. Of course, that still hurts but it beats the alternative. Happy whiffing, folks.

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Indeed, nothing sparks armchair, living-room debates like a player’s golf ball oscillating a fraction of an inch, or somebody’s wedge ever-so-slightly grazing a loose impediment. We yell and scream at the TV over how absurd and archaic some of these rulings can be, but deep down in places we don’t talk about at parties we WANT these violations, we NEED these violations.

Fortunately for us — or, unfortunately for the violators — we’ve witnessed a literal endless amount of these transgressions over the years. Below is our attempt to comprehensively round up the biggest, strangest and costliest of them all, going all the way back to the 1920s and making our way to the present day. Some of these you’ll know well, some you may have forgotten about and some you may have missed entirely. Sadly, the players in question did not have that same luxury.

Bobby Jones, 1925 U.S. Open

Perhaps the most famous ‘gentleman’s game’ moment in golf history was when the legendary Jones called a one-stroke penalty on himself at Worchester Country Club. The violation occurred in the first round when, on the 11th hole, Jones’ club moved the ball slightly at address. No one — not his competitors, not a spectator, not an official — saw the infraction, but Jones pointed it out anyway, and it cost him one stroke. Had he not called it, he would have won the tournament outright. Instead, he lost in a 36-hole playoff to Willie Macfarlane. Jones was praised for his honest act, but deflected it saying famously: “You might as well praise me for not robbing a bank.”

Cyril Walker, 1929 LA Open

Walker, who won the 1924 US Open, was a notoriously slow player. So much so that in the 1929 LA Open, Walker was disqualified on the ninth hole of his first round for his snail-like pace. Apparently, he was as stubborn as he was slow, refusing to leave and continuing on with his round. It was so bad that tournament officials sent two policemen out to forcibly remove Walker from the course, and he was threatened with jail time. Hey, given how much of a problem slow play still is, maybe they were on to something …

Ed Oliver, 1940 US Open

With bad weather looming, and no official starter at the first tee at Canterbury Golf Club for the final round, Oliver, Dutch Harrison, Duke Gibson, Johnny Bulla, Ky Laffoon and Claude Harmon decided to tee off a half-hour earlier than their designated start times. They were soon informed that was grounds for disqualification, but all six pros continued playing under protest. Oliver wound up getting hit the hardest, as he finished in a three-way tie for first, but was not allowed to participate in the playoff with Gene Sarazen and Lawson Little.

Byron Nelson, 1946 US Open

In the third round at Canterbury Golf Club, a crowd had gathered around Nelson’s ball on the 13th hole. This led Nelson’s caddie to inadvertently kick the ball, a one-stroke penalty. Nelson, who won his lone US Open in 1939, would have won No. 2 if not for his caddie’s boot. He still managed to make a three-way playoff with Lloyd Mangrum and Vic Ghezzi, which Mangrum eventually won by a shot.

Lloyd Mangrum, 1950 US Open

Four years after benefitting from Nelson’s misfortune, Mangrum found himself in his own rules imbroglio at Merion. Once again in a three-man playoff, this time against the legendary Ben Hogan and George Fazio, Mangrum had 15 feet left for par on the 16th green. Noticing a bug on his ball, Mangrum lifted it to blow off the bug, a violation of the rules at the time. He was assessed a two-stroke penalty, and Hogan went on to win by four.

Editor’s Note: After this story published, John Capers, a club historian and member at Merion, reached out to clarify what really happened to Lloyd Mangrum in the playoff. As Capers wrote, Mangrum was not penalized for blowing the bug off the ball. Ike Grainger, who was refereeing the three-way playoff, told Capers what really happened: “In 1950 a player in a PGA event could mark their ball as many times as they wanted. However, in a USGA medal play event, the player could ONLY mark their ball if it was in another player’s line. Mangrum’s ball was in Fazio’s line and Mangrum marked his ball. He replaced the ball and was about to putt when a bug lit on the ball. Mangrum re-marked his ball and blew the bug off the ball. He replaced the ball and knocked it in. Ike Grainger then penalised Mangrum for marking the ball a second time when not in another player’s line — two strokes. Mr Grainger then said to him: ‘The USGA does not believe in double jeopardy, so will not be penalised for blowing the bug off the ball.’ The bug would be considered a foreign object sticking to the ball. Mismarking two penalty shots, bug zero penalty shots.”

Jackie Pung, 1957 US Women’s Open

After signing for the correct total score, Pung appeared to have beaten Betsy Rawls by one stroke at Winged Foot for what would have been her only major championship victory. But on the card, Pung was down for making a 5 on the fourth hole, when she actually made a 6. Despite signing for a correct total score, she was disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard.

Roberto De Vicenzo, 1968 Masters

Eleven years after Pung’s disappointment, De Vicenzo suffered a similar fate at Augusta National, though the Argentine signed for a higher score rather than a lower one. His playing partner in the final round, Tommy Aaron, marked De Vicenzo down for a 4 on the par-4 17th, but De Vicenzo had made a birdie 3. Not noticing the error after the round, De Vicenzo signed the incorrect scorecard, and the Rules of Golf stated that the higher score of 4 had to stand. He missed out on a playoff with Bob Goalby by one stroke.

Jane Blalock, 1972 Bluegrass Invitational

As it turns out, Blalock’s infractions were not limited to one tournament, but it was at the 1972 Bluegrass Invitational where the LPGA’s executive board disqualified her for not marking her ball properly on the 17th green, and not taking the two-stroke penalty that came with it. Apparently, this was not a first-time offence, and the LPGA’s executive board suspended her for a year. Blalock sued the LPGA and eventually won the case.

Tom Kite, 1978 Hall of Fame Classic

More than 50 years after Bobby Jones called a penalty on himself for an infraction no one saw, Kite did the same at Pinehurst. As he addressed his ball with his putter on the fifth green in the final round, Kite noticed the ball had barely moved, barely as in he was the only one who would have seen it. He called the penalty anyway, and he lost the tournament by a stroke.

Andy Bean, 1983 Canadian Open

On the 15th hole of his third round, Bean knocked in a short putt with the wrong end of his putter. At the time, it went unnoticed, but unfortunately for Bean, the PGA Tour’s deputy commissioner of tournaments, Clyde Mangum, was watching on television. Mangum called in the infraction, and Bean was penalised two strokes. The following day, Bean shot a nine-under 62, tying the course record and tying for fourth in the tournament. Had he not been penalised two shots a day earlier, he would have been in a playoff with John Cook and Johnny Miller.

Hale Irwin, 1983 Open Championship

After lagging a birdie putt to six inches on the par-3 14th at Royal Birkdale on Saturday, Irwin went to clean up his par with the back of his putter. He completely whiffed, and because he intended to hit it, it counted as a stroke. Irwin told his playing partner he made 4. On Sunday, Irwin shot a final-round 67, good enough to … lose by one measly stroke to Tom Watson. The T-2 was the three-time US Open winner’s best finish at the British.

TC Chen, 1985 US Open

The native of Taiwan was a surprise four-stroke leader in the final round at Oakland Hills when his approach shot on the par-4 fifth hole was short and right of the green. Chen barely moved the ball with this third shot. While playing his fourth from the heavy rough, his club got stuck in the grass, released and accidentally hit the ball a second time in mid-air. The ball landed just shy of the fringe after the double-hit, which resulted in a one-stroke penalty. Chen then chipped the ball eight-feet past the hole with his sixth shot, missed the comeback putt and carded a quadruple-bogey 8 to fall into a tie with Andy North. Chen ultimate finished T-2, one shot back of the victorious North.

Craig Stadler, 1987 Andy Williams Open

On the 14th hole of his third round of what’s now known as the Farmers Insurance Open, Stadler placed a towel beneath his knees to avoid getting his pants wet while he hit a shot from underneath a tree. That was deemed to be in breach of the rule that says a player cannot “build a stance”. Stadler was hit with a two-stroke penalty, but not until the next day, when the NBC broadcast showed the highlight at the beginning of the broadcast, prompting one of the first viewer call-ins on record. Stadler would have finished second, but he was disqualified for having signed an incorrect scorecard (despite not knowing he’d broken the rule and needed to take his penalty).

Editor’s note: Recent changes in the Rules of Golf allow players to no longer get disqualified for signing incorrect scorecards that didn’t take into account penalty shots for rules they did not know they’d broken when they originally signed their cards.

Raymond Floyd, 1987 Players Championship

At the par-5 11th, the second hole of Floyd’s opening round, his caddie went out to the fairway to forecaddie while Floyd and his playing partners took their drivers back to the tee. Floyd’s caddie plopped his bag down in the rough, then walked ahead to check their next potential distance. When the caddie turned around, Floyd’s ball went directly into his bag, a two-stroke penalty. It gets worse: A few holes later, play was stopped for one hour due to rain. When play resumed, one of Floyd’s playing partners, Seve Ballesteros, asked Floyd if they could hit some practice shots. Floyd said yes, and they both began hitting balls into the woods. They were soon informed that was not allowed, and each hit with two-stroke penalties, the second in a span of five holes for Floyd.

Kevin Johnson, 1989 NCAA Championship

A senior at Clemson, Johnson wrapped up his second round at Oak Tree with the individual lead over Arizona State freshman Phil Mickelson and was called to participate in a press conference. There was no scoring tent, and Johnson left his card on a table unsigned. A volunteer picked it up and when Johnson returned for it, he was told he had failed to sign it before turning it in. The NCAA golf committee met for three hours that night and announced Johnson would not be DQ’d, only to partially reverse the decision the next morning. Johnson was allowed to play for the Tigers in the final two rounds of the team competition being played that day, but was out of the individual contest. Clemson fell from first to third place, and Mickelson won the first of his three NCAA titles. Johnson shot 70-73 and had his entire 72-hole score been allowed to count, it would have beaten Mickelson.

Paul Azinger, 1991 Doral-Ryder Open

A few years after Stadler got called out via a call-in, Azinger became the latest victim of a tattle tale at Doral. A day before, the fiery American kicked some coral after playing a shot from a water hazard on the 18th hole. A viewer who picked up on Azinger’s gaffe called in on Friday, and when it was determined to be a penalty, Azinger was disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard on Thursday (69 instead of 71).

Editor’s Note: The major professional tours no longer take phone or email warnings from viewers during tournaments as each has its own officials monitor TV feeds to look for potential infractions.

PH Horgan III, 1998 Buick Open

Following a first-round 71, Horgan was disqualified for one of the greatest oversights in golf history. No, he didn’t sign an incorrect scorecard, and he didn’t get tattled on by a viewer. It was discovered that Horgan simply forgot to register for the tournament, which is usually a good thing to do for a tournament you plan on playing in.

Ian Woosnam, 2001 Open Championship

It’s not quite Jean van de Velde levels of Open infamy, but Woosnam’s screw-up in the final round in 2001 is right up there. After making birdie at the first hole at Royal Lytham & St Annes, Woosie, 43 at the time, was in contention to win a second career major. But at the second tee, it was discovered that the extra driver Woosnam was practicing with on the range was still in his bag, meaning he was carrying 15 clubs, one more than the amount allowed. He was penalized two strokes, and wound up finishing four back of David Duval.

Jeff Maggert, 2003 Masters

With a two-shot lead through 54 holes, Maggert was poised to make a run at what would have been his only major title. Three holes into his final round, that dream died a swift death. At the short par-4 third, Maggert played it safe off the tee with a 2-iron, but found a fairway bunker. He then pulled a 53-degree wedge for his approach, which hit the lip of the bunker and came back and hit Maggert in the chest. He was hit with a two-stroke penalty for the infraction, and he walked off with a triple bogey. Later on the back nine, Maggert made an 8 on the par-3 12th. He still managed to shoot 75, finishing five shots out of a potential playoff.

Editor’s Note: When the USGA and R&A modernized the Rules of Golf in 2019, they changed this rule so that players are no longer penalised if their ball is accidentally deflected by themselves or their equipment.

Jesper Parnevik, Mark Roe, 2003 Open Championship

Not only did Roe have a chance to post his first top-10 in a major that year at Royal St George’s, he had a chance to contend for what would have been the biggest win of his career. Through 54 holes, the Englishman was just two off the lead thanks to a third-round 67. Unfortunately, he never struck a shot in the final round, as both he and Parnevik, his playing partner, were disqualified. The reason? The pair never exchanged scorecards on the first tee on Saturday, and they mistakenly wrote down each other’s scores on their own scorecards. It was the last major Roe ever appeared in.

Michelle Wie, 2005 Samsung World Championship

In her first event as a pro, Wie, then 16, posted an impressive fourth-place finish, which would have matched her career-best on the LPGA Tour to that point. But a journalist made officials aware that he had noticed a day earlier that Wie had taken what he thought might have been a bad drop on the seventh hole. Wie was eventually disqualified, stripped of her fourth-place finish, and the $53,126 cheque that came with it.

Brian Davis, 2010 RBC Heritage

In regulation, Davis went flag-hunting on the famous 18th at Harbour Town, and it led to a birdie that got him into a playoff with Jim Furyk. Back in the 18th fairway in sudden death, Davis went for the pin again, but missed left into the hazard, his ball coming to rest in the sand. As he took the club back, it clipped a weed, which was a loose impediment. Davis immediately called over rules official Slugger White to check if he committed a penalty, and White confirmed he did. It was a two-stroke infraction, and Furyk went on to win with ease. Davis, now 46, has still never won on the PGA Tour while earning more than $13.3 million, the most of any player who doesn’t have a tour victory.

Dustin Johnson, 2010 PGA Championship

Outside of a violation a little further down our list, DJ’s BunkerGate saga was among the more painful to watch unfold in major championship history. After missing the 72nd fairway, Johnson grounded his club in what appeared to be a waste area. Had Johnson looked closer at the note on every player’s locker that week at Whistling Straits, however, he would have known that he was standing in a bunker. He was informed of the violation on the 18th green, and instead of competing in an epic three-man playoff with eventual winner Martin Kaymer and Bubba Watson, he was hit with a two-stroke penalty and fell into a tie for fifth.

Juli Inkster, 2010 Safeway Classic

Just three strokes off the lead after 36 holes, Inkster was in striking distance. But she never got the chance to make a serious run when, after a viewer had called her out via an email to the LPGA, it was determined Inkster would be DQ’d for using a training aid during play. Apparently, during a long wait on the 10th tee, she put a weighted donut (non-delicious division) on her 9-iron and took some swings to stay loose, which is not allowed.

Ryuji Imada, 2010 Mission Hills Star Trophy

If they aren’t DQ-worthy, just about all the penalties on this list are of the one- or two-stroke variety. In rare cases, like Imada’s, a player can be retroactively given penalty strokes for something they did throughout their round, and those penalty strokes can add up. For Imada, failure to read a local rule added up to a 26-stroke penalty in a 36-hole, mixed-field event in China. Players were not allowed to lift, clean and place, and Imada had done so 13 times before being informed he wasn’t allowed.

Tiger Woods, 2013 Masters

Among the most famous rulings on this list came on Saturday morning at the 2013 Masters. A day earlier in the second round, Woods pulled within three strokes of the lead heading into the weekend, having shot a one-under 71. That was changed to a 73 when it was determined that Woods had taken a bad drop at the 15th hole, which he unknowingly revealed during a post-round interview on Friday. After Woods explained where he dropped his ball after hitting his approach off the flagstick and into the water, David Eger, a former PGA Tour rules official, called in to say the drop wasn’t in the proper spot. Woods, who could have been disqualified for the breach, was only penalised the two strokes, and wound up tying for fourth.

Justin Rose, 2013 BMW Championship / Hudson Swafford, 2013 Nationwide Children’s Hospital

In an unfathomable turn of events, Rose and Swafford committed the exact same unbelievably rare infraction on consecutive days. First, it was Rose in the third round of the BMW. The Englishman took a practice swing and made a divot, and the divot somehow made contact with the ball:

Rose received a one-shot penalty, which didn’t make too much difference, as he finished 15 shots back. As for Swafford, who did the same thing the next day on the Korn Ferry Tour, his divot was a little more costly considering he was in contention:

Dustin Johnson, 2016 US Open

Once again, it looked as though Johnson’s first major victory was in doubt due to another dreaded ruling. With the greens rolling like glass on Sunday at Oakmont, Johnson got into trouble at the par-4 fifth green, where he addressed his ball and it moved so slightly that only a super-zoomed-in camera shot could detect it. The USGA examined the video evidence for what felt like hours, finally informing him that he was being penalised a stroke on the 12th hole. Luckily, Johnson won by three, rendering the ruling irrelevant to the ultimate outcome of the championship and saving the USGA from endless wrath.

Anna Nordqvist, 2016 US Women’s Open

The USGA’s peace and quiet lasted less than a month, when Nordqvist also got the delayed-penalty treatment during a three-hole playoff against Brittany Lang. On the second playoff hole, the Swede was hitting an approach shot from a fairway bunker at CordeValle, and cameras picked up on her barely grazing the sand as she addressed the ball. After once again taking a fair amount of time to examine the video evidence, Nordqvist was informed of the two-stroke infraction in the 18th fairway, after she had already hit her third shot in the final playoff hole. She went on to lose by three.

Editor’s Note: The Rules of Golf has since been amended to allow for a “naked eye” standard so that if a player’s action could not reasonable have been seen as it happened and the player was not otherwise aware of a potential breach, he or she would not be considered to have broken the Rules if video technology shows otherwise.

Lexi Thompson, 2017 ANA Inspiration

Thompson appeared to be cruising to her second ANA title in four years on Sunday at Mission Hills, but things changed drastically on the back nine when the LPGA received an email about a potential rules breach that Thompson committed on Saturday. According to the viewer, Thompson had improperly replaced her ball on the 17th green during her third round, which is a two-shot penalty. After being given the penalty, it was also determined that she had signed an incorrect scorecard, so she was now incurring a four-stroke penalty in the middle of the final round. Somehow, she did still get into a playoff, ultimately losing to So Yeon Ryu on the first hole of sudden death. It was the Thompson incident that caused the change in the rules regarding taking call-ins/information from viewers watching tournaments at home as well as eliminating any additional penalty for signing an incorrect scorecard when a player didn’t know he or she had committed a penalty.

Phil Mickelson, 2018 U.S. Open

Many of the penalties on this list were committed accidentally and/or unknowingly. That was not the case with Mickelson’s ‘hitting a ball in motion’ penalty during the third round at Shinnecock Hills in 2018, his frustration over years of heartbreak and punishment in the US Open bubbling over. Four-over on his round after making five bogeys on his previous eight holes, Mickelson faced a slick, downhill 18-footer for bogey on the 13th hole. Mickelson’s putt rolled past the hole and it did not appear like it was going to stop before rolling off the front of the green. Inexplicably, Mickelson ran after his ball and hit it while it was still in motion on the green. He wound up making a 10 on the hole when adding the two-stroke penalty for hitting a moving ball. It remains the quintessential “Phil being Phil” moment to this day.

Haotong Li, 2019 Omega Dubai Desert Classic

On the 72nd hole, Li had a short birdie putt that would have secured him third place and a very nice pay day. Unfortunately for Li, he was later hit with a two-stroke penalty for breaking Rule 10.2b(4), which had just been implemented a few weeks earlier, that states a caddie cannot stand behind a player and line them up. Had Li stepped away and re-lined himself up, there would have been no penalty. The two-stroke infraction dropped him all the way into a tie for 12th, costing him nearly $100,000.

Sergio Garcia, Matt Kuchar, 2019 WGC-Dell Match Play

In a Saturday quarter-final match at Austin Country Club, Garcia was 1-down to Kucher through six holes. At the par-3 seventh green, after missing a seven-foot par putt, Sergio went to give it a quick rake before Kuchar had conceded the putt. The Spaniard’s ball lipped out, and by rule, it counted because Kuchar had not conceded in time. The two eventually smoothed things over, even after a tense exchange soon after, and Kuchar went on to win the match, 2-up.

Darren Clarke, 2019 US Senior Open

It all came down to the 18th hole.

And then this happened.

The outcome? A 1 up win for Tyler Strafaci. #USAmateur pic.twitter.com/JFJcoSKfFQ

— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) August 14, 2020

In his US Senior Open debut, the Northern Irishman got off to a solid start, right up until he ran into some serious rules controversy at the par-4 10th hole. Clarke had pulled his drive way left and in his line of sight on his approach shot was a bird box. Clarke had his caddie move it, only to learn that the bird box was considered an immovable obstruction. Clarke was penalised two strokes, giving him a first-round three-over 73.

Segundo Oliva Pinto, 2020 US Amateur

On the 18th hole of his Round of 16 match at Bandon Dunes, the 20-year-old from Argentina was tied with eventual winner Tyler Strafaci. Facing a greenside bunker shot, Oliva Pinto went up to the green to examine his options. As that was happening, his caddie stepped into the sand and swiped it with his hand. It was a clear breach of the rule that states a player (or his caddie) may not test the condition of the sand. Oliva Pinto, who hadn’t seen what his caddie had done, was given a loss-of-hole penalty and in turn lost the match.

Cameron Smith, 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship

We’ve added this very recent rules blunder uncertain what the real cost could potentially be. Cam Smith was getting set to warm up for his final round at TPC Southwind on Sunday thinking he was two shots off the lead in the year’s first FedEx Cup playoff event. A victory would jump him to No. 1 on the FedEx Cup points list and put him in prime position to win the $18 million prize for winning the Cup that will be handed out in a couple weeks at the Tour Championship. A win would also have vaulted Smith to World No. 1. However, PGA Tour officials asked to talk to him that morning to follow up something that happened on Saturday in the third round. On the par-3 fourth hole, Smith’s tee shot found the water, and he went to take relief from the red-lined marked penalty area. He dropped his ball, which came to rest seemingly on the red line. Smith played his third shot on to the green and made the putt for a bogey 4, but officials looking at the video were concerned that the ball was on the red line, and that Smith had mistakenly not taken full relief from the penalty area. After talking to the player, Smith confirm his ball was on the line and that he did not realise that was an issue. Officials were forced to assess a two-stroke penalty for Smith playing from a wrong place. Smith now started the final round, which was already in progress for other golfers, four shots off the lead. He birdied the first hole but shot a pedestrian even-par 70 and finished T-13, six shots back. He also tweaked a sore hip that decided to skip the next week’s BMW Championship to be fully rested for the Tour Championship. Whether the penalty costs Smith the FedEx Cup title will be hard to quantify, but it certainly could be a costly issue if he misses out on the hefty pay day at the Tour Championship.

Here is the full video of the Cam Smith penalty.pic.twitter.com/CV57DlYRg4

— Golf Digest (@GolfDigest) August 14, 2022

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