CBS
Every week on the PGA Tour brings something new. something Just Strange as last week. and the previous week. Why? Because the rules of golf can get weird. They are strict. The playing field is different from other sports fields. There are dangers, off limits, animals and uneven surfaces. How can it be normal?
Since it’s not normal, boy, it sure can be amusing. The main performer for the week was Emiliano Grillo, the leader through 71 holes in the Charles Schwab Challenge. Not with just one shot. This was a comfortable one-shot advance.
Grillo pared the 17th hole at Colonial Country Club, but then blocked his tee shot on the 18th, sending it into what was considered an odd right-side water hazard. It’s weird because it’s a canal that runs through the track, all the way outside the property, past TCU’s football field, and runs for a full mile. On the outer edges of the stakes is angled concrete, creating a slow trickling stream at its centre.
The most important aspect of this stream was that it was flowing behind toward the tee box, so when Grillo’s tee ball found water, it never came to rest. Slowly but surely, that ball remained in motion, perhaps moving one foot per second backwards in his direction.
For a guy who hadn’t won a PGA Tour in eight years, Grillo had to be on edge. Partly because he needed to make a decision, and quickly. Because there was an odd exception in the rules of golf that would have allowed him to play that ball once it had rolled to a nice angle for a recovery shot.
Rule 10 of the Rules of Golf It governs when a player may make a strike, and Rule 10.1d discusses the act of playing the moving ball.
The player must no You make a stroke on a moving ball,” it says, but there is an interesting exception written just below it. Exception 3 states that “when the ball is moving in temporary water or in water in the penalty area, a player can make a stroke.”
There may only be one place on the Tour where this scenario is actually possible, but we found it on Sunday. Grillo walked down the fairway as his ball slowly returned to him. By now, most of the spectators in the area were cheering as the ball kept moving. Then, a couple of paparazzi got so close, they even got close to the little stream as the ball was rolling.
After a few minutes had gone by and Grillo arrived, the ball was nowhere near as comfortable. It was rolling and rolling, aided by the slight dip in the canal. CBS even used drone cameras hovering over it to show onlookers moving by.
Mark Dusbabek, the PGA Tour’s officiating official, joined the broadcast to explain that Grillo actually has the option to play the ball while it’s in motion. It seemed strange to anyone listening intently. But that was it, wait for it to stop additional From the hole – a position we can’t expect – or drop from where it was originally crossed into the penalty area. Had he walked through door number 1, it would have been a great visual, with a ball and water splashing toward the fairway on the final regulation hole, and spectators watching in the background.
Grillo must have been thinking about it as his ball kept moving, because he didn’t make a quick decision. He then admitted that he had indeed been in this exact state before.
“I beat him there,” Grillo said. “I knew, as soon as I saw the ball move right, I was like, ‘This is going to be a very long hole. “I went through the pain of watching the ball roll back 120 yards.”
About 10 minutes passed between the original tee shot and Dusbabek’s second appearance on the broadcast, where he made it clear that the competition committee would not wait any longer.
“We’ve been talking about it as a committee, but enough time has been given and given enough time to make a decision here, so we’re going to make it back to where it was last crossed,” Dusbec said.
Everything seemed to happen according to a perfectly planned scenario as the ball finally hit a rock and came to rest about 144 yards from where it crossed into the box. Grillo could easily have downed another ball much sooner and completely forgotten that first shot, but he calmly came back and snatched the ball for himself. He would drop twice onto a cart track, then put his ball on the hard surface and play the hole.
Did he make the right move? He certainly could have made a bogey of 5 in regulation by playing his bogeyball off the table. He could also have made a bogey double 6, which would have earned him a spot in the playoff. Unfortunately, we’ll never know. His six goals were enough to create a nervous wait as the final pairing played 18, but in the end Grillo beat Adam Schenck in the playoff for his second career win. We’ll have to wait another 12 months for next year’s championship to see if anyone will be brave enough to do what Grillo hasn’t. The whole ordeal may have given some Tour pros something to think about.