Matt Kuchar didn’t expect to be involved in an odd argument over the rules of the game, but when his ball ended up in a pitch mark, then a rules argument came up that was only solved by several officials and a TV replay Bets.co.za reports today at the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield, Ohio.
A pitchmark is basically an impression that a ball makes on the fairway after it lands heavily. Under the rules, a player is allowed a free drop if their ball ended up in their own pitch mark. However, the problem here was the Kuchar’s ball had ended up on the edge of someone else’s pitch mark. Both he and Robby Ware, the PGA Tour Official, agreed that the mark was not his own. Kuchar argued that his ball had ended up its own pitch mark within the pitch mark of someone else’s.
Ware was called to the scene to inspect what had happened. “The rule says it’s got to be your pitch mark. If the ball rolled, there’s no way it’s going to create a second pitch mark.”
Though Kuchar argued against that, saying: “What if it rolls and it kind of hops up and hops down?” But Ware was unmoved by this argument. Ware then reinforced his argument by bringing in a Golf Channel camera operator to review the shot, which clearly showed the ball taking a couple of hops before it settled. “Even if it hopped up just an inch or two it’s not gonna create [its own mark]”.
Kuchar refused to accept this and called for a second opinion maintaining that the second bounce had created a second pitch mark. “Oh yeah, you see that Robby?” he said. “It popped straight up. That has potential to have broken a different ground than what was initially a pitch mark.” However Ware was still unmoved by this line of reasoning, and so Kuchar still sought a second opinion.
Rules official Stephen Cox came over for the second opinion, but he sided with Ware. “Ultimately it’s already in a hole made by somebody else, I’m not buying that fact on the second bounce we’re now gonna get you out of a pitch mark made by somebody else,” opined Cox.
Cox said that he had already seen the shot on TV and didn’t need to review the footage again when Kuchar asked him to take another look. Kuchar then wondered if it was possible to seek a third opinion, which was promptly denied — thus concluding the episode in less than ten minutes. Kuchar went on to par the hole in any event before going on to complete his round for a one-over-par 73.
Kuchar spoke to reporters afterwards and claimed that the rule was confusing. “The only reason I did it is just from seeing the video, I only asked for a second one because I thought there was potential and thought, you never know, you may get someone else who says there is potential for that to happen and we need to look further into that,” he said.