That’s the thing, though, is it? While Tiger has sent many balls into the water, has he or anyone ever sent a ball into the water in precisely this way?
People are arguing as if this was a common mundane golf occurance.
It wasn’t.
Precisely what way - off the flagstick? That has happened before, yes, but the fact that it hit the stick isn’t important as far as the rule is concerned. It is fairly common for a shot to cross a water hazard and then roll back in.
The question is whether it is common for a ball to cross a water hazard and then roll back in in a significantly different line of sight than the original shot.
Not sure how to define common, but I would say it’s something every person on tour has dealt with many times. Remember, these guys shape their shots at will. Even shots that don’t bounce off the flagstick, shots that drop directly into the water, may well have crossed into the hazard at a point NOT on a direct line between the golfer and the hole. Every single time that occurs, they have to determine where that point is (as best they can) if they want to use the option where they drop back somewhere on that line. And I would guess that every single golfer on tour, on more than one occasion, has hit a green (or the fringe) coming from an angle, and the ball rolled straight back (not on an angle, given pesky gravity) into the drink. So, every single time a golfer wants to use that drop option, he needs to determine where the ball last crossed into the hazard. Every time.
But keep in mind, that’s not even the confusion in play here. Tiger thought he was using the option to drop back where he hit the shot. He didn’t even think about where the ball crossed into the hazard, because he didn’t need to for this option. He trudged back to where hit had hit, unconcerned about that detail. And that would have been correct. His brain fart was thinking that this option also permitted him to play farther back on the line created by that spot and the hole. I’m sure he has done that option many times before, and dropping farther back was never, ever allowed. Again, I think he just had a brain fart. Even cyborgs like Tiger do.
Another thing to keep in mind is that even if the golfer is unclear on the rule, he can ask for an official to rule. This drop rule is pretty well known, but even if it weren’t, the golfer is never in a position where he’s standing there thinking, “I just don’t know what the rule is, and there’s no way to find out!”
Well, sure, it’s happened to me and I’m no pro. Golf balls can not only hit things, but the green, fringe or surrounding terrain could have rolls and bumps that deflect the ball’s travel.
Also, it’s important to understand that the “line of sight” involved here is the line between the hole and the point where the ball enters the hazard. It has nothing to do with the point where the ball was hit from, or the line of flight of the shot.
Say you take a shot over a water hazard, but your shot is not heading directly at the flag. If your ball lands just past the hazard and rolls back in, the line of sight is completely different than if it had just gone straight into the hazard. No weird bounce is necessary for this, and it’s not at all unusual for this to happen.
Makes sense, that must happen fairly often then. Tiger must have known the rule.
I guess he was so flustered over the bad bounce he wasn’t thinking straight.
I think that’s what happened. It seemed clear to me that he did not think he had done anything wrong.
I have also played tournament golf and I can guarantee you that most officials including high school golf coaches don’t know the rules. The pofessional players are given reviews of the rules every single year. The fact is most people think they know the rules and feel confident applying them. They are msitaken and, like Tiger in this case, should call an official to have their options explained. If they feel the official is giving them an incorrect ruling they have the option of playing two balls and getting a ruling later from a committee. It is my firm belief that Tiger believed he had the option of going back as far as he wanted on the same line. That was wrong as we now know. He did not have the option of dropping within two yards of his previous shot, which he did do. Since the committee had the facts and saw no breech they are certainly within their rights to waive the disqualification for something they themselves failed to identify as being wrong. Why they felt he had a right to drop 5 or 6 feet away, when the rule clearly says, as close as possible, is an explanation I would like to hear. When the lift clean and place rule is in effect the player must place his ball within 6 inches of the original spot, how could 5 + feet be okay?
As an aside, the rules are basically a joke for most tournaments. The fact is players agree to violate rules all of the time. The player who knows the rules is at a severe disadvantage as opposed to those who do not.
Under what provision of the rules can the Committee do this?
There was nothing about this situation that had much to do with a lift, clean and place rule. The simple explanation for Tiger’s action is that he confused the provision for hitting another ball from the same place with the one that allows a drop anywhere on the extension of a line from hole to place the ball crossed the margin of the hazard.
Such as?
How can this be, when the rules rather plainly specify that ignorance of them makes no difference to their application?
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Ignorance pretty much has to come into play when a player proceeds unintentionally in violation of a rule and there is noone present to tell him otherwise. Please note the innumerable times players have been DQ’d or penalized in PGA tournament after a phone call from a viewer. Imagine that there are just as many or more such situations where similar behaviour occurs out of the televison viewers’ sight. Players think they know the rules or think that the action they are taking could not possibly be proscribed, but in fact it is. And when noone sees it or informs the player otherwise he has profited from his own ignorance.
Here is an example to test your own knowledge: You tee off on number 1, whose fairway is adjacent to number 10. Your ball is Titleist ProV-1 number 1 which you have marked with 3 black dots under the 1. You hit a great drive, but due to a slice and some wind it unfortunately lands in the rough on number 10 next to a ball that was presumably hit from the tenth tee with identical ball markings. How do you proceed?
The player who thinks he knows what to do will probably not be in accordance with the actual rules of golf.
I like these, let me give it a try:
Lost ball, play third shot from the tee.
That is correct, assuming you are unable to identify Your ball. Is there a golfer in the world who would do that in a “friendly” match? What would Tiger do?