How the rules aided Scottie Scheffler’s miracle Pebble Beach par save

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Scottie Scheffler might be intolerant to glass, but he is allergic to bogeys.

The world no. 1 possesses a brilliant array of skills, but perhaps none is better than his gift for good outcomes.

“I’ve never — and this is anyone, this is Tiger, this is in the history of golf,” Scheffler’s friend Rory McIlroy said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a golfer play as many bogey-free rounds as Scottie. He just doesn’t make mistakes. It’s so impressive.”

Those words came on Tuesday morning at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, and it only took until Friday afternoon for the World No. 1 to bring them to life. The situation came on the 18th tee box, seconds after Scheffler tugged a drive over the famed cliffside and onto the beach. After a discussion with a rules official on the tee box, Scheffler trekked down to the beach to find his ball hiding amid a pile of small seaside rocks. After a subsequent player-caddie discussion, Scheffler cleared many of the rocks from his way, grabbed a wedge, and popped his ball back up into the fairway. An approach and two putts later, he was in for a thrilling — and admittedly “lucky” — par.

It was a quintessential Scheffler moment — a rare misstep followed by four consecutive totally-in-control strokes. Even his recounting of the situation made the impressive sound mundane.

“Saw a ball on the beach, went down there, found my ball, moved some rocks, hit it out, hit it on the green, two-putted,” he said, deadpan.

But the situation was aided by one considerable shift to the golf rulebook; a 2019 change to the rules surrounding “loose impediments” that Scheffler said made all the difference.

“[If I hadn’t been able to remove the rocks], I don’t know if I would have been able to get my ball up over the rocks in front of me,” Scheffler said. “I didn’t really take that good of a look at it. I would have assumed I probably wouldn’t have been able to get it up over the top. I think I would have probably tried to not hit it [if I hadn’t been able to move the rocks], because if I mess it up, I’m back still on the tee box hitting like my fourth shot.”

A quick recap: back in 2019, the USGA and R&A released an updated version of the Rules of Golf that introduced an update to rule 15.1, involving loose impediments. Under the new rules, players were free to remove loose impediments anywhere on the golf course, undoing restrictions that previously dictated where they could be removed.

There are exceptions to the new rule 15.1, including the stipulation that loose impediments that would cause a player’s ball to move remain in place, lest the player receive a 1-shot penalty. That meant Scheffler had to leave one potentially ruinous rock out on the left side of the ball. Otherwise, he was free to clear the space beneath his ball for a comparatively easy chip out.

“With the old rules I think I probably would have gone back to the tee just because of the way the rocks were around my ball and the unpredictability of not being able to get it up over the top,” he said. “But to be able to move some rocks definitely made the shot easier.”

Scheffler escaped the 18th on Friday at 7 under for the week, seven shots off the mark set by runaway leader Sepp Straka. It has been a fairly routine week in Monterey for the World No. 1. Scheffler’s first start after a forced layoff from hand surgery caused by a broken wine glass over the Christmas holiday has featured all of his usual long-levered effortlessness, if his two bogeys to nine birdies over the first two days represent results beneath his typical standards.

“I think like the last two days out here I haven’t felt at peak performance at all,” he said. “I think if you look at my strokes gained ball-striking numbers, they’re probably not near what they would normally be and I think that’s just a little bit of competitive rust, kind of getting my feet back under me and playing tournament golf.”

It would be foolish to expect Scheffler to find his A-game right out of the gates after two months off from tournament play, but what we’ve seen so far isn’t exactly cause for concern.

“To only have two bogeys, one of them being with a semi-shank, it’s pretty good,” he said. “Definitely 18, a little luck saved at least a bogey.”

Lucky, maybe, but that’s a new affliction for Scottie Scheffler. His score? Not so much.