[ad_1]
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Norwegian Viktor Hovland escaped disqualification but was given a two-stroke penalty after signing his scorecard in the first round of THE PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass on Thursday.
Hovland’s score fell from 70 to 72 after being blocked for inadvertently playing his ball from the wrong place on the green at the 15th par 4 hole.
After hearing this video showed him breaking rule 14.7, Hovland and his caddy contacted the rules committee, which reviewed the tape. He confirmed that he was indeed wrong on the 15th green. In order to clear the line for playing partner Justin Thomas, Hovland moved his ball mark the length of a putter head. When he went to replace it, he mistakenly moved it one putter head in the same direction instead of back to its original location.
He made the next two-headed putter shot from where he was supposed to be.
“I think he heard about it from someone in his home country,” said Gary Young, adjudicator. “I think it may have appeared on the stream in Norway. He and his caddy contacted our committee and asked if we had a video of it, as he didn’t remember doing it.
Video showed that Hovland had in fact committed the offense, moving his mark twice in the same direction before replacing the ball.
Instead of being disqualified for signing an incorrect card, Hovland was saved by rule 3.3b3, which states that a player can be penalized retroactively for breaking a rule without knowing it.
“He had left the property,” Young said. “I sent him an excerpt from the video, and he’s very comfortable with the result, that he gets the penalty. He understands the rule. He didn’t know he had done it.
Hovland has had a meteoric rise in the world rankings (13) and the FedExCup rankings (third) after registering five top spots, including a victory at the Mayakoba Golf Classic presented by UNIFIN, in his four of his last six starts. He will enter the second round seven behind Sergio Garcia.
Source link
