Golf

Drawn-out ruling irritates PGA Championship contender

Robert MacIntyre on Friday to the best of the seventh gap at Valhalla Golf Club.

Sky Sports

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Robert MacIntyre was up in opposition to compound fencing. He was within the mud. He was on some stairs. He was on a platform.

MacIntyre was additionally annoyed.

“It’s just really annoyed me,” he mentioned Friday night time on the PGA Championship. 

The course of, he mentioned, lasted 25 minutes on Valhalla Golf Club’s seventh gap, zapped his momentum and had him questioning officers. MacIntyre parred the par-5, however he bogeyed the subsequent two holes — his last two of the day after beginning on the again 9 — and he began Saturday’s third spherical at seven below, 5 again of chief Xander Schauffele. 

The sequence began after MacIntyre went proper together with his second shot on 7 at about 7:50 p.m. native time, and it settled subsequent to compound fencing, which allowed him to get temporary immovable obstruction (TIO) relief. But the spot of that aid was in some query. Eventually, MacIntyre and an official settled to the best of what gave the impression to be a concession tent. 

But there was standing water there, so further relief was allowed. But the place was the query once more. A second official was wanted. 

Said the second official, via the Sky Sports broadcast: “I’m just coming into this. I just want to know what are we doing?” 

Said MacIntyre: “So we were over there [pointed to the left]. We were miles over there. … This is the relief. … Where I’m going to drop it — so if I don’t drop this perfectly — I’m trying to work out where my relief from casual …”

First, MacIntyre and the 2 officers examined a drop close to the steps of the tent. Didn’t work. They walked up the steps. MacIntyre dropped there. He hit from the wood platform, about 75 yards from the opening, and he ultimately made his par.   

It all additionally irritated him. After the seventh, with darkness settling in, MacIntyre missed the inexperienced together with his tee shot on the par-3 eighth and once more together with his second shot on the par-4 ninth, resulting in bogeys. 

“Took them 25 minutes to get a ruling,” MacIntyre mentioned afterward, “and I’ve come out from the ruling and it’s pitch black. It’s just really annoyed me. To finish the way I finished is really not good when I’m right in the golf tournament. Now, I’m kind of behind the 8-ball trying to fight back.”

A reporter requested him to explain the ruling.

“I was just trying to find out where my nearest point of relief if I dropped it,” MacIntyre mentioned, “and it was informal water and I simply wanted to know the place my nearest level of aid was, and the man didn’t know so we needed to get a second man. It simply took longer than it wanted to, and I simply misplaced all momentum. Hadn’t swung a golf membership in 25 minutes. Probably two dangerous swings, the worst shot I’ve hit all week on the par-3 eighth. 

“I suppose we just get on with it.”

On Sky Sports, analyst Laura Davies referred to as the episode “unusual.”

“The PGA are so good at working out where players could hit a ball,” she mentioned. “I’m shocked there wasn’t a drop zone. It would’ve been a terrific drop zone. But you do get them occasionally in main championships as a result of the grandstands and the infrastructure is so huge. 

“So Bob’s done nothing wrong there.”  

Nick Piastowski

Nick Piastowski

Golf.com Editor

Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his position, he’s chargeable for modifying, writing and growing tales throughout the golf house. And when he’s not writing about methods to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native might be taking part in the sport, hitting the ball left, proper and quick, and ingesting a chilly beer to clean away his rating. You can attain out to him about any of those subjects — his tales, his recreation or his beers — at nick.piastowski@golf.com.


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