Anna Davis, who is defending her title this week at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, has been hit with a four-stroke penalty over a rules violations she committed early in the first round Wednesday.
According to a story first reported by Golfchannel.com, Davis, 17, started her round on the the first hole of Champions Retreat by missing the fairway. Apparently thinking that the field was playing preferred lies (lift, clean and place) throughout the golf course, Davis picked up her ball in the rough and replaced it. Her second-shot approach on the par 4 missed the green in the rough, and Davis again picked up her ball and replaced it. She eventually bogeyed the hole.
Unfortunately for Davis, she would appear to be violating the Model Local Rule E-3 that the ANWA’s competition committee put in place for the tournament and notified players about on Tuesday in a memo. Due to recent rains, the committee said that preferred lies would be allowed for “areas cut to fairway height or less. … When a player’s ball lies in a part of the general area cut to fairway height or less, the player may take free relief once using a preferred lie by placing the original ball or another ball in and playing it” from a relief point that is within one club length of the original spot and no nearer the hole.
An ANWA spokesperson confirmed to Golf Digest that a review of Davis’ round was ongoing and that it likely would be a point of discussion once she was finished. Should it be determined that Davis did violate the rules on the first hole, she would incur a two-stroke penalty for each time she picked up the ball—or four strokes total—and she would receive a quintuple-bogey 9 for the first hole.
Golf Channel reported that Davis was informed of the possible rules issue on the fourth tee. She then double bogeyed that hole and suffered another bogey at the fifth. But Davis rallied with three birdies over her next seven holes and was tied for 18th place—without the penalties—with five holes to play.
The top 30 players and ties after 36 holes will play the final round at Augusta National on Saturday.
Later on Wednesday, Augusta National confirmed Davis’ penalty in a statement:
