Professionals revisit the rules. Then there are 7 penalty strokes

Anthony Quayle reread the paper. There’s nothing wrong with taking another look. He felt certain about what he saw, but understandably wanted reassurance.

Then he felt like vomiting.

“When I realized that, I felt sick to my stomach,” Quayle said. “I thought I had done something wrong.”

What followed at the Victoria PGA Championship, an event on the Australian PGA Tour, included calls to the tournament director, multiple penalties and commitments. The news was first reported by PGA Australia’s Martin Blake and spread by Monday Q Info golf’s Ryan French.

The sequence unfolded during Thursday’s first round after players received a document reminding them of their preferred lie on a portion of the 13th fairway at Moonah Links Public Course. Lift ball, lob ball and drop ball. Quayle said he read the announcement but mistakenly interpreted it as a preferred lie that was valid throughout the course and played that way all the way to the 15th green.

But there, playing partner Tyler Macomber wondered: Are they playing? Quayle told him yes and said he’d been doing it “all day,” then double-checked.

No.

On the 15th green, Quayle invited referee and tournament director Heath McLeod. The ruling will be difficult. How many times has Quayle lifted, cleaned and placed? When he does this, where does he place the ball – where it originally was, or somewhere nearby?

After discussion, Quayle gave himself a seven-stroke penalty. On three occasions, he played his preferred lie and played the ball from a different position than his original position, resulting in three two-stroke penalties (under Rule 9.4). On one occasion, he played a preferred lie and returned the ball to its original position, resulting in a one-stroke penalty (also under Rule 9.4). According to Black’s story, Quayle told McLeod he thought he had returned the ball to its original position the second time, but was unsure and took a two-stroke penalty. (Meanwhile, McCarber was shot for a two-gun violation.)

Could all this have been avoided? Why is he reading the rule sheet this way? Quill told Black he had several reasons, even though he was well aware it was a “rookie mistake.”

“The fairways are nice,” Quayle said. “You can see we may need a first-choice lie because there are a lot of collection areas with turf. Our last three tours have all been first-choice lies. The document I received was a small half-page document with highlights “Preferred lies” and scorecard length highlighted.

“This was a huge rookie mistake on my part. I just assumed that on this tour we would be playing More Like Lies more often. I just didn’t think too much of it. I’m kicking myself now. It turns out that the file only Says the third hole is best located in the blue area I guess it’s more in the fine print of the document.

Nonetheless, Quayle, the 30-year-old pro from Australia who finished tied for 15th at the 2022 British Open, has at least 21 holes left and could even go as far as 57 holes. , maybe he can still score a good result.

He did it. In the second round, he shot 67. He was three points behind going into the final round.

Of course, you know what will happen if he is not punished──and so does he.

“After I took some time to process what happened on Thursday night, I kind of thought let’s take this as a challenge and see what we can do. To advance with a seven-shot penalty would be impressive. ,” he told Blake.

“After I made the cut, now I’m trying to finish as high as I can because whatever I finish this week, it’s going to be impressive. I kind of want the story to go as far as it can go. It could be It’s something I’ve remembered for a long time.

Tournament director and rules official MacLeod said he was impressed. He said Quayle’s honesty was admirable.

“We’re proud of the way Anthony handled it,” he told Black. “As soon as he realized his mistake, he called me over and played on the 15th green. He immediately took responsibility for his actions and we dealt with him for four rule violations, which he accepted without hesitation punished.

“It really shows the character of Anthony. To have something like this happen on Thursday and to put him behind him and play some great golf the last two days, it’s great.

Editor’s note: To read Blake’s Australian PGA story, Please click here. To read the message shared by the French, Please click here.

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