Rory McIlroy and caddie Harry Diamond on Thursday on the eleventh gap at Muirfield Village.
Golf Channel
Rory McIlroy’s ball? It fell left of the water and a purple penalty line on Muirfield Village’s eleventh gap, then rolled in.
But his penalty drop?
It got here proper of the water — and onto the golf green throughout the Memorial’s first spherical.
How? Thanks to an “on-this-hole-only” provision, one which beforehand had been in place universally.
“It’s a great break for him,” PGA Tour rules official Mark Dusbabek mentioned on Golf Channel’s broadcast.
The sequence began on McIlroy’s tee shot, which flew left on the 589-yard par-5, hit bushes and dropped to the left of a creek and the penalty purple line, earlier than trickling in. With wind off the left, the shot was troublesome Thursday. In most circumstances now, as spelled out by Rule 17.1d (3), the drop can be discovered beginning the place the ball final crossed the sting of the purple penalty space.
But McIlroy was ready to drop to the suitable of the water — as a result of Model Local Rule 8B-2 was in play. It’s often called opposite-side aid.
There are possibly some questions right here, with one being: Why was the Model Local Rule in impact? Notably, had it not been, McIlroy would’ve had to drop onto the slope main to the water, and Dusbabek mentioned on Golf Channel’s broadcast that he would’ve had bother hitting.
“Usually for the red-penalty areas, there is not opposite-side relief available,” Dusbabek mentioned on the printed. “However, we instituted it this week on this gap solely as a result of the participant is severely deprived by having to drop over there. You see that steep slope there. Rory can be dropping the ball and can be taking part in down on a steep angle there and be exhausting to advance the ball.
“So we introduced that. It’s a great break for him. He’s still going to take one penalty shot for going in the creek, but it’s still a better option here.”
On the USGA’s web site, the Model Local Rule is defined this manner:
Cameron Smith says ignoring this 1 delusion helped his placing probably the most
Nick Dimengo
“Rule 17.1 gives a player the option to take lateral relief or back-on-the-line relief based on where his or her ball last crossed the edge of a red penalty area. But in some cases (for example, due to the location of the red penalty area right next to a course boundary), those options may leave the player with no reasonable option other than to take stroke-and-distance relief.”
But hadn’t opposite-side aid as soon as been in play throughout the board? It had. On the printed, analyst Frank Nobilo famous that, too.
So why the change?
On its web site, the USGA explained it this way:
“Opposite facet aid was an advanced choice that many gamers weren’t accustomed to and that was seldom used.
“The major objective behind this aid beforehand was to give an additional aid choice for the bizarre circumstances the place neither back-on-the-line aid (Rule 26-1b) nor lateral aid on the facet the place the ball entered the water hazard (Rule 26-1c(i)) appeared viable and the participant’s solely reasonable choice was to take aid underneath penalty of stroke and distance (Rule 26-1a).
“In apply, reverse facet aid was usually taken when a participant really had satisfactory aid underneath one or each of the opposite aid choices and thus served solely to give an pointless additional choice that at occasions may appear too advantageous.
“This change also helps avoid any concern that, with the expanded use of red penalty areas, a player might be able to use the opposite side option to drop on the green side of the penalty area, thereby avoiding the challenge of having to play over the penalty area.”
One extra query:
Did McIlroy take benefit?
Not fairly. After his drop, from about 290 yards out, he tried to hook a 3-wood towards the inexperienced, but it surely dropped into the bushes on the suitable. From there, he pitched on and two-putted for a bogey, and he completed with a two-under 70, which was 4 again of chief Adam Hadwin.
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