My first experience refereeing at a major, outside of The Open, was at the 104th PGA Championship in May as a guest referee. Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma was the venue and the course looked fantastic on arrival.
You could tell looking out at the course from the 1st tee that it would provide a very exciting championship!
Unlike The Open, where there is a referee walking with each group, at the US PGA a referee is stationed on each hole. I had been given my assignments for the week in advance; holes 5 and 14, so I knew exactly where my attention was to be focused. This meant a slightly different approach during course walks in preparation of the championship getting underway on Thursday morning. Normally, you would stress over every detail and blade of grass – however now I only had to create as many possible scenarios and hypotheticals as my mind could muster for holes 5 and 14.
Hole 5 was a monstrous par-5 on paper at 656 yards, slight dogleg left to a smallish green. The green was well guarded with bunkers to the left and a red penalty area to the right that snaked its way towards the green from around 80 yards out – the potential landing zone for an over clubbed lay-up shot.
Hole 14 was a tricky par-3 at 230 yards where there wasn’t much in the way of bail outs. The green was guarded by six bunkers so great importance was placed on hitting the green. The addition of two TV towers to the rear of the green and left-hand side brought in potential rulings, particularly with the ground being firm and balls chased up long towards the next tee. There was a cart path further afield on the left which seemed out of play but I knew it would definitely feature at some stage during the week.
Thursday – Hole 14
My first ruling of the week came on Thursday afternoon. Ryosuke Kinoshita pulled his tee shot 25 yards left of the green, bouncing on the cart path and coming to rest in the hedgerow. There was a very small chance a player may try and play the ball but at first glance it looked unplayable. On arriving at his ball, Kinoshita and his caddie asked straight away what his relief options were, not even contemplating the tricky shot with limited back swing. Given the hole position for the day, his lateral relief option (two club-lengths) wasn’t getting him back into a playable spot without going nearer the hole. Back-on-the-line wasn’t an option either, with the boundary fence only a couple of feet away to the left of the hedgerow. A straightforward ruling as his only option – the long walk back to the tee (the hole was playing 230 yards that day) to take stroke and distance relief.
Friday – Hole 5
Joel Dahmen’s second shot went left into the gallery line and bounced several times before coming to rest close to some bins. The ball came to rest amongst the trees and the spectators descended on the ball. The marshals were quick off the mark to keep everyone clear of the ball while the player and caddie made their way to its location. All seemed fine as the bins were moved out of the way until a child darted from the crowd and picked up ball that for some reason no one else wanted as a souvenir! The ball was quickly dropped following outcries from spectators. Not an ideal situation but the lie of the ball was known as it had found one of the grassy patches amongst some bare ground. I advised the player his ball had been moved, and that we simply had to replace the on its original spot. It is worth noting that even if the original spot was not known, we would simply estimate the spot and the ball would still be placed.
Saturday – Hole 14
Jon Rahm’s tee shot started slightly left of the green and kicked further left on its first bounce towards the rope line. The ball came to rest against the cables which are movable obstructions, running down the hole and Rahm beckoned me over. It was clear that his ball had a high chance of moving when the cables were repositioned away from his ball. Although he was most likely aware, I confirmed to him that there would be no penalty if the ball moved when he removed the cables. Another simple ruling as the ball did move when the cables were removed and Rahm replaced his ball back on its original spot.
Sunday – Hole 6
Not a ruling that I was involved in as it occurred on a different hole from my allocation – and as the last five groups at the weekend have walking referees. During the final round, Will Zalatoris’ tee shot on the 6th hole landed over the green and came to rest in the hedgerow. It wasn’t possible to play his ball due to the shrubbery and boundary fence, so he chose to take unplayable relief. Fortunately for him, he was able to take lateral relief as his only other viable option was going back to the tee under stroke and distance and facing that testing tee shot again. His two club-lengths relief area allowed him to drop the ball on the nearby cart path. After dropping the ball twice on the path, with the ball rolling outside the relief area each time, Zalatoris placed the ball on the spot where the ball landed on the seconded drop. Zalatoris then had line of sight interference from the television tower behind the 6th green and as a result, was entitled to free relief from the television tower under Model Local Rule F-23 for Temporary Immovable Obstructions. His relief area from this was also on the cart path, however he did have a clear line to the hole. He dropped the ball once and it rolled out of the relief area, so he dropped again and this time the ball did come to rest in the relief area and was in play. Now given the positioning of the ball on the path and the hole location, his nearest point from the path was back in the hedgerow so he elected to play the ball. To make things just little more difficult, his ball had come to rest in a seam of concrete in the cart path! Zalatoris managed to chip from the path (3rd stroke) and hole a putt from approximately eight feet for bogey. All things considered, it was an incredible save!
With all the glitz and glamour that many believe comes with being a referee it was a very quiet week but one that was thoroughly enjoyable. For those that have refereed, a quiet week is sometimes the best as it means nothing controversial has occurred which is the ultimate goal.
However, there will be some that moan and groan about having provided no rulings all day or any of the days for that matter. Sometimes that happens.
That is the life of a referee!
