4 rules incidents unlocked after pro’s tee shot: ‘I had a funny situation’
Corey Conners on Friday during the second round of the Sentry.
Getty Images
What happened on 9, the reporter asked Corey Conners. A good question, though if you happen to be in a hurry here, perhaps you would’ve wanted the scribe to ask this instead:
What didn’t happen?
Friday, after his second round at the Sentry, the PGA Tour’s season-opener, Conners offered some intel. Notably, he bogeyed the 545-yard par-5 on the Plantation Course at Kapalua, which stood out in and of itself in his seven-under-66 round — but how he bogeyed may also be of interest, especially the sequence that unlocked four rules incidents.
Said Conners of it all: “I had a funny situation.”
Here’s how things played out:
— His tee shot strayed right. “I just made an uncommitted swing on the tee,” Conners said.
— His ball wound up in “long grass,” where Conners said it was embedded. He called over an official.
“So I had the official there,” Conners said, “and was trying to get relief from the embedded ball, and wasn’t entitled to that because I didn’t really have a shot. Which, I didn’t really have a shot. If my ball wasn’t plugged, I would have been taking an unplayable. Could have argued maybe that I could have swung.”
Wait. Why didn’t Conners get relief here? That’s spelled out in Rule 16.3a (1), where it says: “There is no relief under Rule 16.3b: When playing the ball as it lies is clearly unreasonable because of something from which the player is not allowed to take free relief (such as when a player is unable to make a stroke because of where the ball lies in a bush).”
(Notably, according to the rules, “a committee may adopt a local rule restricting relief to a ball embedded in those parts of the general area cut to fairway height or less.”)
— Conners took a one-stroke drop for an unplayable ball, allotted under Rule 19.2.
Pro’s seven-birdie streak ends with ‘devastating’ par
— But now?
“The Shot Link tower was in my way,” Conners said, “so I got a drop.”
That falls under relief from temporary immovable obstructions. (The USGA offers a wonderfully detailed description of TIOs in a pamphlet that can be found here.)
— But now?
“Was on the cart path, took relief from that,” Conners said.
That comes via Rule 16.1, which defines relief from abnormal course conditions.
— Finally, Conners played shot three, and he advanced his ball to wedge distance. From there, he pitched to 14 feet, then missed the par putt and finished with a bogey.
“It was just set up by a poor drive,” Conners said. “Gave myself a par putt, but wasn’t able to convert it.”
With that, Conners’ post-round press conference was done, and he was seemingly off to unwind.
Latest In Instruction
