One of those ambiguous golf rules cost Tiger Woods a two-shot penalty and a chance to play the weekend in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, his first tournament of 2013.
On the fifth hole, Woods sought the opinion of playing partner Martin Kaymer about whether his ball was embedded and entitled to a drop. He and Kaymer agreed the ball was embedded, so Woods took a drop and hit the next shot.
Apparently, a writer walking with the group asked a rules official about the situation, and the European Tour’s Andy McFee determined that it was a sandy area to the right of the par 4 fifth fairway, meaning Woods was not entitled to a drop; he should have played it as it lay or taken an unplayable lie, a 1-stroke penalty.
So, Woods was assessed a two-stroke penalty – he missed the cut by one stroke. World No. 1 Rory McIlroy missed the cut by three strokes.
McFee approached Woods on the 11th hole to inform him there was an issue, and Woods played the rest of the round unsure if he would be penalized. He was, 2-stroke penalty raising a bogey into a triple bogey, a 73 into a 75, a total of 145 into 147 – and a pass home for the weekend.
“Andy said the ball wasn’t embedded, because it was sandy based,” Woods said. “I called Martin over to verify it, and we both agreed it was. We thought it was embedded. But evidently it wasn’t.”
Actually, it was. But the issue is whether it was embedded in sand, from where no relief is allowed, according to Rule 25-2.
“It’s just one of these situations that both he and Martin, unfortunately, got that rule wrong,” McFee said. “Under the rules of the game, on all tours, the embedded ball only applies on a closely-mown area. All tours use the note to that rule which extends it through the green, which means everyone on the golf course except hazards.
“But it’s very specific that rule, and it refers to ground other than sand. Now unfortunately this area, whilst it’s got vegetation on top of it, it’s just creeping vegetation and sand, as most is the off-grass areas here. Once we had found out what had gone on, we investigated it.”
Woods only asked Kaymer his opinion about whether the ball was embedded.
“It was embedded and then I walked away,” said Kaymer. “Embedded and we both thought it was a drop.”
It is unclear if Woods knew coming down to the end that he would be penalized.
“I wanted him to know, this might affect his strategy going forward,” McFee said. “We had that conversation as he came off the 11th tee. Said we would talk further in the recording (scoring) area. When he got into the recording area, I had the conversation with Tiger, and I said, ‘Do you want to go out and have a look at it?’ He said, ‘Look, if you think that’s the right rule, that’s good enough for me.”’
Woods is scheduled to make his PGA Tour debut next week at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in La Jolla, Calif.
