Embedded Ball or Not Embedded Ball, that is the Question

Aloha, in this week's blog we'll discuss a couple of things that happened during Thursday's round at the Memorial Tournament.

The first incident involved Matt Kuchar.  He asked for relief for his ball which he believed was embedded in the General Area.  Relief was not granted.  He asked for, and got, a second opinion which confirmed the original decision.  The Referee showed him the Rule in the Rule Book before he accepted the decision.  The issue?  His ball was NOT in his own pitch mark.  It had rolled into a previously made pitch mark in the General Area.  Rule 16.3a (2) defines when a ball is embedded and when relief is allowed.  It must be in its own pitch mark made as a result of the players previous shot and part of the ball must be below the level of the ground.  Unfortunately for Matt, his ball was in a pitch mark made by another player's ball.  No free relief.  He played the ball and saved par with a great up and down save!

The second involved Bryson DeChambeau.  He got a bad time after being put on the clock and got a warning.  Rule 5.6 defines the first breach for Unreasonable Delay as a one stroke penalty, the second breach is the General Penalty and the third breach as a Disqualification.  However --- the PGA Tour (and the USGA for their events) invoke Model Local Rule K-5 which modifies Rule 5.6 so that the first breach is a formal warning from the referee, the second breach is a one stroke penalty, etc.  Just when I thought we were making progress in speeding up the game, we have these "backtracking" episodes.  Drats!!


Golf Hole of the week -- where is this?


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