Adam Hadwin agreed to wear a microphone during Thursday’s first round of the RBC Heritage. It picked up his mutters. It picked up his analysis with his caddie. It picked up his conversation with playing partners Dylan Frittelli and Max Homa.
The microphone picked up his honesty.
Crouched in the left fairway bunker on the 13th hole at Harbour Town Golf Links, Hadwin carefully removed an object near his ball and flipped it to his right. He carefully removed another object and again flipped it right.
“Uh oh,” he said within a second of the second toss. “I’m pretty sure that’s a penalty what I just did there.”
Hadwin took a step back and put his hands on his hips.
“Well, I thought it was a rock,” he said to his caddie, Joe Cruz. “I thought it was a rock right there so I went to grab the rock and the sand kind of just squished in my fingers. I’m pretty sure that’s a penalty.”
Cruz asked for an official. Hadwin told Frittelli and Homa to hit. Mark Dusbabek, a PGA Tour senior tournament referee, arrived on a cart.
“Hi,” Hadwin said. “I removed a rock and then I went to remove what I thought was another rock and as I grabbed said rock, it crumbled because it was actually sand. So I think, yeah, I mean, it looked like a rock to me – that’s why I was trying to move it.”
According to rule 12.2, “a player may remove loose impediments under Rule 15.1 and movable obstructions under Rule 15.2. This includes any reasonable touching or movement of the sand in the bunker that happens while doing so.” It also says “before making a stroke at a ball in a bunker, a player must not deliberately touch sand in the bunker with a hand, club, rake or other object to test the condition of the sand to learn information for the next stroke.”
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Dusbabek said it was a two-stroke penalty.
“OK, yeah, that’s what I assumed,” said Hadwin, who would double-bogey the hole and finish with a 1-over 72.
A similar incident happened at last year’s Northern Trust.
Rory McIlroy went to remove what he thought was a stone behind his ball in a bunker, but it turned out to be sand and he pulled back. He was assessed the two-stroke penalty then, only to have it rescinded when he consulted with Slugger White, the PGA Tour’s vice president of rules and competitions, after the round, as it was determined McIlroy did not intend to improve his lie or test the surface of the sand and did not cause his lie to be improved.
As Dusbabek pulled away, Hadwin was even more honest.
“OK, thanks,” he jokingly said to Dusbabek. “Well, not thank you, but, yeah – screw you, but thanks.”