Rory McIlroy avoided a penalty stroke by the skin of his teeth on day one at the Valero Texas Open.
His birdie putt from 13ft on the 600+ yard par 5 8th hole hung on the edge of the hole and it looked like he may be in risk of a penalty stroke just as Austin Eckroat recently received at the Players Championship.
However, his ball luckily dropped into the cup on the nine-second mark, meaning it counted as holed. Had it fallen in two seconds later, he would have breached the 10-second rule and been forced to add a stroke to his scorecard.
Watch McIlroy’s birdie putt:
Rory McIlroy’s putt eventually drops after NINE seconds! ⏱️😲 pic.twitter.com/4TX3iVgf9cApril 5, 2024
“I backed off the ball twice because of the wind. I could feel the wind at my back, so I’m like do I play the wind, do I not play the wind? When I ended up hitting the putt, there wasn’t really a ton of wind there and I thought I missed it on the left side,” he explained after his opening 69 at TPC San Antonio.
“Obviously the ball hung on the edge and I was just hoping for a gust of wind to come to blow it in and thankfully it did before the 10-second mark.”
McIlroy also discussed his recent trip to Las Vegas to see legendary coach Butch Harmon.
“What I’m working on or what I’ve been trying to do the last couple weeks is no different than what I’ve been trying to do previously, he just sort of gave me a different way to do it,” he said.
McIlroy makes his ninth start of 2024 in Texas ahead of The Masters next week
(Image credit: Getty Images)
“That’s sort of the – you know, you could tell someone five different things and like for the same feel – like to a piece of a swing, but sometimes none of them resonated, sometimes all of them, sometimes one thing.
“It’s just one of those things over the past few months that nothing was resonating with me. He gave me a tiny little something that I went with and, as I said, it’s felt a little better over the last two weeks and felt pretty good out there.”
Ball overhanging the hole rule:
Rule 13.3a: Waiting Time to See If Ball Overhanging Hole Will Fall into Hole
If any part of a player’s ball overhangs the lip of the hole:
- The player is allowed a reasonable time to reach the hole and ten more seconds to wait to see whether the ball will fall into the hole.
- If the…
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