Austin Kaiser was pricked by a tree.
He was stung by a rock.
He then asked a question that helped leave his man without a scratch.
“Is this not in our way?”
The PGA Tour ShotLink tower and its cables were, a Tour rules official deemed Thursday. And what followed was near-miraculous relief for Xander Schauffele at Quail Hollow Club, which he rode to the lead after the Wells Fargo Championship’s first round.
“Maybe that’s the break that makes the difference this week,” analyst Frank Nobilo said on Golf Channel’s broadcast.
The sequence started after Schauffele went right with his tee shot on the 356-yard par-4 8th hole, and after a search, the ball was found a few feet to the left of a chain-link fence, close to a couple of larger rocks and under dense tree coverage, all of which were in a red-marked penalty area. Questions ensued.
Could Schauffele take penalty-stroke relief from there? He could, though it would be a long way backward. But couldn’t he also attempt a swing? He could try. Some work was needed. In the way were the rocks, and Schauffele called over Kaiser, his caddie, who worked his way into the tree area and moved them under the rules, though not before being hurt by the trees (“Ow, ow,” he shouted) and the rock (“That one sure f***ing hurts,” he said.).
The player and caddie came out of the trees. They wondered about the shot, which would require a low punch-out. But Kaiser spotted the ShotLink tower, which under the rules is deemed a temporary immovable obstruction (TIO), and he asked his question to rules official Dave Donnelly, though that triggered another question.
Can you get TIO relief from the penalty area?
You can, according to this USGA online explainer of TIOs, though only as long as the TIO was in the light of sight between the ball and the hole, and a reasonable play at the ball could be made. Were the tower or the tower’s cables in the way? Could Schauffele hit a shot toward the hole? Schauffele, Kaiser and Donnelly went back into the trees. They talked.
The relief was given.
Said rules official Mark Dusbabek on the Golf Channel broadcast: “You can see the camera tower right there. It’s one of our ShotLink camera towers, and there’s a wire that comes down off of that. So the determination that Dave just made is that Xander — can Xander make it to that camera tower through the trees there? And Dave has made the decision that he can. So he’s going to get relief out of that. It’ll be free relief, even though he’s in the penalty area. He has to stay in that penalty area to take his full relief.”
Notably, the relief took Schauffele from the spot close to the fence and under the trees, to yards away from the fence and free from tree cover. From there, he pitched on, two-putted for a four, and he signed for a seven-under 64, good for a three-stroke advantage heading into Friday.
