In professional golf tournaments, team-fighting is precious. But too much obsession becomes poison. Lee Hodges (USA), who played in the third round of the PGA Championship, a major tournament on the American Professional Golf (PGA) Tour, on the 21st (Korean time) did just that. He waited so eagerly for the ball caught at the entrance of the hole to move that he was punished with a one-stroke penalty by the tournament organizers.
In the match held at Oak Hills Country Club (par 70.7380 yards) in Rochester, New York, USA, Hodges committed 3 bogies to the 16th hole (par 4) and lost 3 strokes. The situation has already dropped to the bottom of the leaderboard. His psychological burden was bound to increase.
The incident occurred on the 17th hole (par 4). About 5m from the pin, Hodges made a par putt. A ball sent to the right side of the hole curves to the left and stops at the right end of the hole. The Titleist 3 ball, which drew the putting line with a black pen, narrowly caught at the entrance of the hole, causing Hodges trouble.
Since the par was more desperate than anyone else, Hodges restlessly waited for the ball to fall inside. Time passed helplessly while he sat down and stood up again and again. It wasn’t until 34 seconds later that the ball returned to Hodges’ wait and fell into the hole. Hodges smiled brightly and took the ball out of the hole.
But the results were visible. This is because the PGA Championship Rules Committee imposed a one-stroke penalty on Hodges.안전놀이터
According to Rule 13.3a of Golf, a player must fall within 10 seconds of approaching the hole to count as the previous stroke. However, Hodges was delayed by 34 seconds. Because of this, the Rules Committee explained, “The ball fell inside after the time limit (10 seconds) specified in the Rules of Golf. As a result, Hodges was penalized with one stroke under Rule 13.3a.” On this day, he recorded 5 bogeys and fell to a tie for 67th with a 10-over par 220 strokes in the middle.
In the match, Brooks Koepka (34, USA), who is active in LIV Golf, cut 4 strokes and took the lead with a median total of 6 under par 204 strokes. Koepka, an eight-winner on the PGA Tour, won the event in 2018 and 2019.