Last weekend, I received many questions on some incidents at the 2020 Masters.
SUSPENSION OF PLAY
Thursday, play was suspended because of darkness. If at least one player started a hole before the signal for suspension of play (3 short blow of the horn), the players are allowed to complete the play of the hole. In some cases only one player may complete the hole as long as there is a witness to see all his shots.
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The next day, the players may mark the ball, they may also change balls. When they put back a ball in play, they place it instead of dropping it.
SINGLE PLAYER
At the Masters, a Club member is always available when a player is alone in his group. Since 2003, Jeff Knox, the Augusta National Club Champion, is the one that will play alongside a single. On the first day of the tournament, we had a group of 2 players (Erick van Rooyen and Sung Kang). After the first round Rooyen was injured and had to withdraw.
When something like that happens in my tournaments, we usually break a group of three and we have a competitor playing with the single player. In many PGA Tour events, they have a walking marker that does not play.
YELLOW LINE – HOLE # 12
When I wrote my article last week, I never expected that Tiger would make a 10 on hole # 12. If the penalty area would have been RED, Tiger would never have made a 10 because the first time his ball went in the water, he would have taken his 2 club lengths relief from the green side.
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Because it was marked YELLOW, he had to drop a ball in the DZ twice and the third time he took the option of dropping in the bunker.
SMOOTH THE SAND IN A BUNKER?
Why did the caddie smooth the sand before Tiger drops his ball? If after a stroke from a bunker, the ball ends up outside the bunker, a player may have the bunker raked. Even if he knows he will drop another ball in the same bunker.
BALL MOVES AFTER IT HAD BEEN MARKED AND REPLACED
With the huge slopes on the Augusta National greens, it is always possible that a ball starts to move because of gravity or wind. If a ball is in a severe slope and the player had marked the ball and replaced it, that ball will always be played from the original spot even if a gust of wind or the gravity sends the ball elsewhere.
MUD BALL
During the telecast, we heard often players complaining about a mud ball. The Tournament committee decided not to put into effect the local rule that would permit the players to mark, lift, clean and replace the ball at the same spot. It was one of the major concerns from the players before the start of the tournament.
In my tournaments, if there is a possibility of mud balls, I always putt that local rule in effect.
LOST BALL
We almost never see a player lose a ball in the rough. 20 spectators search for 3 minutes DeChambeau’s ball in the rough and nobody found the ball. It was considered a lost ball and the player had to go back to the tee.
In all those years as a golf referee, once and a while I have to make a ruling for a player that did not find his ball in the rough and sometimes in the fairway. The player tells me that someone must have taken the ball because it is impossible to lose a ball there! I always denied the free drop. I am happy for what happened to DeChambeau because I will have an extra argument to give players when I refuse the ball lost in an abnormal ground condition.
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