{"id":82752,"date":"2025-08-20T15:39:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T15:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/82752\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T15:39:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T15:39:10","slug":"rules-of-golf-review-he-took-the-penalty-but-dropped-in-the-wrong-place-now-what","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/82752\/","title":{"rendered":"Rules of Golf Review: He took the penalty but dropped in the wrong place. Now what?"},"content":{"rendered":"

During the first round of the 2024 Players Championship, things came to a screeching halt on the seventh hole at TPC Sawgrass when Jordan Spieth debated the proper drop location for a hooked tee shot that Rory McIlroy had plunked into a penalty area. McIlroy wanted to drop much closer to the hole than Spieth thought was correct. And thus, the awkward exchange occurred.<\/p>\n

\"956904456\"\/ <\/p>\n

Jamie Squire<\/p>\n

When things settled down, everyone was satisfied (at least outwardly) with the outcome. McIlroy ended up dropping farther back than he wanted, but let\u2019s play the \u201cwhat if\u201d game for a moment. What if McIlroy didn\u2019t consult his playing partners and went ahead and dropped where he wanted? And what if some form of evidence came to light that showed his ball crossed the margin of the penalty area much farther back than where he dropped?<\/p>\n

This is where Rule 14 comes into play\u2014and you find out what should happen to that guy you saw attempt to take a penalty drop but didn\u2019t exactly do it right. Granted, it might be a casual round, and you might be tempted to let it slide, but what if you\u2019re playing for $20 a side? Or if it\u2019s the third day of the member-member? No one wants to be that golfer who calls out an illegal procedure, but here\u2019s what you should do according to the Rules of Golf.<\/p>\n

Rule 14.7a says that, after taking a penalty and dropping the ball incorrectly, a second penalty applies if that golfer doesn\u2019t correct the mistake before hitting his or her next shot. It\u2019s the general penalty (two strokes or loss of hole in match play). If you call out the player before he or she hits, then that golfer has a chance to correct the mistake before incurring the additional penalty. So perhaps think of your \u201ccall out\u201d as a humanitarian effort. You\u2019re just trying to help whomever save a couple of shots.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, if you drop in the wrong place in stroke play and finish the round not knowing you made a mistake, it\u2019s not grounds for disqualification even though you signed for an incorrect score. Rule 3.3 lets you fix the error, provided the competition hasn\u2019t been completed, by adding the penalty strokes for that hole and adjusting the total score. In match play, once a round is over, the status of the match stands without the loss-of-hole penalty adjustment as long as the player committing the penalty had no idea he or she reported the wrong number of strokes taken.<\/p>\n

\"166822518\"\/ <\/p>\n

John W. McDonough<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also interesting to note that a drop that begins incorrectly is still considered as playing from the wrong place even if it ends up in the correct spot. It\u2019s like solving a math problem without showing your work. An example: If you are supposed to drop using the back-on-the-line relief, but you don\u2019t drop in the right spot, it doesn\u2019t matter if the ball winds up on the actual line. You didn\u2019t do it right. So the penalty for 14.7 still applies.<\/p>\n

Tiger Woods famously took an improper drop at the famously took an improper drop at the 2013 Masters that could have led to his disqualification after signing an incorrect scorecard. Amazingly (or perhaps not), the Masters tournament committee took pity on him an only levied a two-stroke penalty on him for playing from the wrong place.<\/p>\n

MORE GOLF DIGEST RULES REVIEWS <\/p>\n

What do I do if my ball just hit another ball on the green?<\/p>\n

What happens if my three-minute search for a lost ball gets interrupted?<\/p>\n

I hit myself with my own ball. Is that a penalty anymore?<\/p>\n

What exactly is an embedded ball?<\/p>\n

Touching the green to see if it\u2019s wet: Penalty or no?<\/p>\n

I hit a horrible shot. I\u2019m way better off if I don\u2019t find it. Can I just declare it lost?<\/p>\n

Does a ball have to be unplayable to declare it unplayable?<\/p>\n

I accidentally hit my ball with a practice stroke \u2026 does it count?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m on the green. My opponent is not. Who\u2019s away?<\/p>\n

I bent my putter and it actually works better. Can I still use it?<\/p>\n

Somebody just picked up my golf ball! Now what?<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During the first round of the 2024 Players Championship, things came to a screeching halt on the seventh…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82753,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-82752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}