World No.2 Cameron Smith was slapped with two-shot penalty in the moments leading up to his final round tee time at the FedEx St Jude Championship, after playing a shot from the wrong place during the third round.
Smith was due to tee off on Sunday only two shots off the lead. The Australian can become world NO.1 if he wins the Memphis event.
“Prior to the start of the final round of the FedEx St Jude Championship, Cameron Smith was assess a two-stroke penalty for a brach of rule 14.7 (playing the ball from the wrong place) on hole No.4 during the third round as he was operating under rule 17.1 (when ball is in penalty area),” the PGA Tour said in a statement. “Smith’s score has been adjusted and he will begin the final round (at nine under). Final round pairings will not be adjusted.”
The rules incident happened on the fourth hole, a par 3 at TPC Southwind, on Saturday. Smith’s tee shot bounced into the water hazard. The Queenslander dropped his ball but it rolled into the penalty area. He then placed the ball on the red penalty area line and played his third shot, before tapping in for bogey.
However, Smith’s ball was still in the penalty area given it was touching the line. The rules stipulate a player must drop their ball outside the penalty area. The readjusted score gave Smith in triple-bogey 6 on that hole and a 69 instead of a 67.
Smith was informed by PGA Tour rules official Gary Young before his 1.30pm final round tee time, when he was 11 under and just two shots off the lead. Smith was the betting favourite on Saturday night.
“(Smith) dropped the ball in that area but it came back to rest against the line and it was at that point he he obviously thought it was okay to play it from that position,” Young said during a discussion of the incident on Golf Channel’s broadcast Sunday. “You have to take complete relief from that penalty area. He wasn’t aware that no portion of the ball could be touching the penalty-area line. “He thought if a portion of the ball was in the general area of the course, he was safe to play.”
As for the dubious timing, Young said, “We discussed (this) a little more this morning after someone else on the (rules) committee had seen the broadcast we decided to take a second look at it and should talk to Smith) himself.”
Young said Smith took the news well. “Cam was a complete gentleman, and he took it that way,” Young said. “He was completely calm through the whole process. Once he found out it was a two-stroke penalty, he just said to me, ‘The rules are the rules.’ And you know, in typical casual Cam fashion he just accepted it and left the office.”
Smith then birdied his first hole of the final round.
Social media lit up at the timing of the decision, not the decision itself.
