Pro’s birdie putt hung on the lip for 1 minute, and the rules got confusing

Grant Forrest lifted his putter over his head, walked to the other side of the hole and squatted down. He walked to his right. He walked back to the left and squatted down again. His playing partner had a look. Forrest stood up and held his putter out in front of him. He took two steps back, then a few forward.

Forrest tried. But waiting for his ball to drop, he was allowed only the actions in the first sentence.

In a somewhat bizarre scene on Sunday during the final round of the DP World Tour’s Singapore Classic, Forrest missed a putt, it hung on the lip for about a minute before he putted again, and a rule was confused. It also brought to mind a moment from two years ago, when, on the PGA Tour, Si Woo Kim also waited on a putt — only he didn’t putt after that.

To begin, Forrest hit his tee shot on the 184-yard, par-3 17th at Laguna National Golf Resort Club about 20 feet past the pin, missed the birdie attempt less than an inch to the left, and his journey described above started. But there’s a limit on how long you can wait. 

Rule 13.3a covers it. It states: “If any part of a player’s ball overhangs the lip of the hole: The player is allowed a reasonable time to reach the hole and 10 more seconds to wait to see whether the ball will fall into the hole.

“If the ball falls into the hole in this waiting time, the player has holed out with the previous stroke. If the ball does not fall into the hole in this waiting time: The ball is treated as being at rest. If the ball then falls into the hole before it is played, the player has holed out with the previous stroke, but gets one penalty stroke added to the score for the hole.”

In short, Forrest was allowed to get to the hole and got 10 seconds from there — in his case, he was given the putter raise over his head, the walk to the other side of the hole, and the squat down. At that point, he needed to putt — and the 50 seconds that followed were just for show. Here you may be wondering, though, what would have happened if the putt had dropped, say, after 25 seconds. Forrest would have been hit with a penalty stroke — and he’d have the same score if he would have just tapped in. And that raises another point. After the 10 seconds, you can still wait just to wait, as long as it’s reasonable. 

But it all does get confusing, and the analysts on the Golf Channel broadcast had questions.

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“I think he’s going to have to give up on this one,” one announcer said at one point. “You don’t get half a minute. Maybe you do.”

“That’s extraordinary, isn’t it?” another announcer said later. “Not quite sure about the rule. If you think the ball is still moving, is the onus on you to wait? Not sure what it is.”

A good point, but once the player has had a reasonable time to reach the hole, plus 10 seconds, the ball is treated as at rest. Notably, this came up with Kim two years ago at the RBC Heritage, where he putted from off the green, his ball also stopped on the lip — and it dropped after 55 seconds. 

But it didn’t count. And as you would expect, a rules official was called in. Kim’s playing partner, Matt Kuchar, argued that he saw the ball moving after it reached the hole, then asked: “You can’t hit a moving ball, correct?” 

“But in this situation, the rules are modified because you could argue that there comes a point in time that we’ve got to play that golf ball,” rules official Stephen Cox said. “And that’s why you put that time limit on it.” 

“Wow,” Kuchar said. 

“That’s the way it is,” Cox said.

“I was certain it was — well certainly I’m wrong,” Kuchar said. 

In Forrest’s scenario, his ball never dropped. After his wait, he cleaned up for his three, smirked and walked to 18.