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Rules of Golf
Rules from The Open and the AIG Women’s Open
17 Sep 25
Rules from The Open and the AIG Women’s Open
With the major season now behind us, it’s a good time to look back at some of the more interesting and entertaining rulings that happened during The 153rd Open at Royal Portrush and the AIG Women’s Open at Royal Porthcawl.Scheffler & Morikawa side by side
On the 7th hole at Royal Portrush during the first round of The 153rd Open, Scottie Scheffler and Collin Morikawa’s golf balls ended up right next to each other at the side of the green. Morikawa’s ball was further from the hole so it was him to play first, but as he would have been standing on Scheffler’s ball, Morikawa asked him to mark it. If a player reasonably believes that another player’s ball might interfere with their own play they are allowed to have the ball marked and lifted, but the ball must not be cleaned (see Rule 15.3b). Morikawa would then have been standing on Scheffler’s ball-marker, so Scheffler moved the marker one club-length to the side, which again is allowed (see Rule 15.3c).Watch: Scottie Scheffler and Collin Morikawa’s golf balls ended up next to each other on the 7th hole at Royal Portrush.
After Morikawa played his shot, Scheffler was required to replace his ball on its original spot by reversing the steps used to move the ball and ball marker out of the way.
In this situation Scheffler could have decided to play first, even though he was closer to the hole, but instead Scheffler required Morikawa to play first, as he is entitled to do under Rule 6.4b(1), as it allowed him to see how Morikawa’s ball would react when he chipped onto the green.
Rory’s magic trick!
On the 11th hole of his third round at Royal Portrush, as Rory McIlroy played his second shot from a muddy spectator pathway, a second ball seemingly appeared out of nowhere. As his own ball was headed towards the front edge of the green, the second ball, which unbeknown to McIlroy had been concealed in the mud directly underneath his ball, had popped up and out of the ground during the stroke. From a Rules of Golf perspective, McIlroy made a stroke at his own ball as required, and the stray ball was simply a movable obstruction, meaning that there was no penalty for also hitting the concealed ball (see the definition of Stroke). In an amusing coincidence, Daniel van Tonder also had a similar situation during his third round when he noticed an abandoned ball underneath his ball in the rough. As noted above, a stray ball is a movable obstruction and so he was allowed to remove the stray ball before making his stroke (see Rule 15.2). Before removing the stray ball, van Tonder marked the position of his own ball (without lifting it) so that if his ball moved he would be able to accurately replace it, without penalty. While it is not a requirement to mark your ball when removing a movable obstruction, it is good practice to do so as it helps to make sure that the ball is replaced accurately. As it happened, van Tonder’s ball did not move as he removed the stray ball and he proceeded to take his next stroke with no further action required. The most amazing part of the coincidence though was that the stray ball had the identification mark ‘RORS’ stamped on it, the marking that Rory McIlroy uses on his golf ball!Watch: Rory McIlroy's magic trick on the 11th hole at Royal Portrush.
More stray balls from Woad
Lottie Woad encountered yet more stray balls during her first round of the AIG Women’s Open at Royal Porthcawl. On the 11th hole, Woad found two stray balls under her foot when she was taking a stance to play her second shot. Again, as stray balls are movable obstructions she was allowed to remove them before playing her shot out towards the fairway (see Rule 15.2).Watch: Lottie Woad found two stray golf balls as she prepared to play her shot.
Justin Thomas waiting for the ball to drop
On the par-3 3rd hole of his first round at Royal Portrush, Justin Thomas hit an excellent long-range birdie putt that stopped on the very edge of the hole. As part of the ball was overhanging the hole, he was allowed a reasonable time to reach the hole and then ten more seconds to wait to see whether the ball would fall into the hole (Rule 13.3a). As can be seen by the video, Thomas waited a little longer than ten seconds once he reached the hole. While there is no penalty for waiting longer than the allowed time, had the ball fallen into the hole after the ten seconds had passed, Thomas would have had an additional stroke added to his score. In the end, the ball did not fall into the hole by itself and Thomas tapped it in for a par.Watch: Justin Thomas waits for the putt to drop after his ball ended up on the very edge of the hole.
Mimi Rhodes’ hole-in-one
During the final round of the AIG Women’s Open, playing partners Steph Kyriacou and Mimi Rhodes took a total of only three strokes between them to complete the par-3 5th hole. But that was just part of the story! Having already had a hole-in-one on the 8th hole of her second round at Royal Porthcawl, Steph Kyriacou almost repeated that feat when she hit her tee shot at the 5th hole of her final round to just one inch. Mimi Rhodes followed that up with an equally good shot, but her ball deflected off Kyriacou’s ball and straight into the hole for a remarkable hole-in-one. As Kyriacou’s ball was an outside influence from the point of view of the Rules of Golf there was no penalty to either player for the deflection. In this situation, Rhodes was required to play her ball from where it came to rest, and so it was considered holed (see Rule 11.1), and Kyriacou was required to replace her ball on the original spot (see Rule 9.6). However, as the 5th green sits considerably higher than the tee, neither the players nor their caddies had seen that Kyriacou’s ball had been moved a few inches by Rhodes’s shot. Equally, no-one in the crowd advised the players of what had happened and so Kyriacou played her ball from its new position. Normally when a player plays their ball from the wrong place there would be a penalty involved (see Rule 14.7), however as Kyriacou had no knowledge or virtual certainty that her ball had been moved by Rhodes’ ball, she was not penalised for playing her ball from its new position (see Clarification 9.6/3).Watch: Mimi Rhodes managed an incredible hole-in-one with help from her playing partner.