It’s rare that professionals lose their golf balls on the course, especially as they hit their shots so straight and that there are many ball spotters spread around the hole they’re playing.
However, that doesn’t mean that they are immune to it, as Sahith Theegala found out at the PGA Championship on Friday, when his second shot on the par 4 10th went missing.
Finding the fairway bunker with his tee shot, the American splashed out the sand and down the left-side.
From the outset, it seemed that no harm was done… that was until Theegala and his playing partners were unable to locate his golf ball in the three-minute allotted time, meaning the PGA Tour winner had to go back to the bunker he played from.
Eventually, after hitting out the sand with his fourth shot, Theegala found the green with his fifth, before two-putting for a double bogey seven.
The three-over score on the 10th dropped him from three-under to level-par, as the 28-year-old fell down the leaderboard.
Theegala searches for his golf ball on the par 4 10th
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Under Rule 18.2, the time for a ball search is three minutes. If you can’t find it within three minutes, it is lost.
Because it is lost, you must return to the spot of your previous stroke and play another ball from there for a one shot penalty.
In fairness to Theegala, it’s not the first rules debacle we’ve seen at the PGA Championship, with one player being penalized for being late to his tee time, while one group was put on the clock for slow play.
On Thursday, Garrick Higgo received a two-stroke penalty as he was late for his morning tee time. Justin Thomas, meanwhile, found his group put on the clock on Friday.
Although they weren’t holding up the group behind, Thomas, Keegan Bradley and Cameron Young found themselves getting a warning, something the former claimed he “didn’t really agree with it.”
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