During
the first round of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Matt Kuchar played a little
more golf than he had bargained for in his 3-and-2 victory over Bernd
Wiesberger. On the 14th hole,
about to wrap up a 5-and-4 victory, Kuchar had to move his ball-marker to the
side. Unfortunately he forgot to move it
back. He putted from the wrong place and
the players were about to consider the match complete when Wiesberger’s caddie
asked if Kuchar had replaced his marker.
Kuchar admitted the mistake and the official ruling is that Kuchar lost
the hole for playing from a wrong place.
As
there is some misinformation going around let’s go through the match play
process and highlight some differences between match play and stroke play.
We may
remember Zach Johnson’s tenuous victory in 2012 at the Colonial when he made
the same error. He forgot to move his
mark back, and fortunately made the putt because he only had a three-stroke
lead, was penalized two strokes for playing from a wrong place in breach of
Rule 20-1 and the ball was holed because it was not a serious breach of playing
from a wrong place. That was stroke
play.
In
match play there are no two-stroke penalties.
If a player is guilty of playing from a wrong place he incurs a loss of
hole penalty. What is interesting about
match play is that because players are permitted to overlook a breach of the
Rules by their opponent, a claim must be made to apply the penalty. If a referee is assigned to the match, he
must act on any breach of the Rules that is observed or reported to him but in
the case where officials are not assigned to a match, the opponent must make a
claim to apply the penalty for a Rules infraction. As soon as Wiesberger’s caddie brought the
infraction to light, Wiesberger was no longer permitted to overlook the breach
and by asking the Rules Official for a ruling, a claim was made.
One
piece of information I do not have is whether a referee was assigned to the match,
but my understanding of the sequence of events makes it a moot point. As soon as Wiesberger’s caddie brought the
infraction to light, Wiesberger was no longer permitted to overlook the breach
and by asking the Rules Official for a ruling, a claim was made. Had Kuchar and Wiesberger agreed for some
reason not to apply the penalty, they would both have been disqualified for
agreeing to waive a Rule of Golf.
Let’s
be clear, the hole was not conceded by Kuchar.
Kuchar incurred a loss of hole penalty and therefore the match had to
continue. Kuchar still managed to close
the match out two holes later. He once
again had to move his ball-marker to the side, but this time, he remembered to
move it back.
For
more on claims see Rule 2-5. Also, refer
to the Claims chart provided in the Rules Study Guides & Charts section of
FarbTalk.
No comments:
Post a Comment