Bernhard Langer was clever with the rules. Then Tiger Woods stunned

of PNC Championship proved once again this weekend that it is a special event among nationally televised golf tournaments. Parents competing with their children. Men playing with women. A 13-year-old in the field supports an 89-year-old. Four sets of tees in play. Thirty-six holes. Bird-fueled sprint until the end. Good stuff all.

PNCs shape it’s also a differentiator: a two-player scrimmage, which is a rarity for televised golf on the network.

In a scrimmage, each player hits a ball shot and then chooses the better of the two shots to play next. The same goes for the third shot, with this pattern repeating until a ball is hit. It’s an ultra-forgiving format, which explains how Team Langer and Team Woods shot 28 under over two rounds, and neither team shot worse than eight under; The Langers eventually beat Woods’ on the first playoff hole.

Scrambles are unique from traditional golf in another important way: When players decide which shots to play, they are allowed to place their balls within a club-length of the original spots. This compensation generally results in ideal freeway alignment. Balls that find hazards, bunkers, rough, natural or fringe areas may be picked up and placed within a club-length, but must usually stay within the “same condition” – ie, in most fairways, by involved in PNC, the organizers of the tournament. don’t allow players to move a ball from, say, a bunker into the fairway.

Getting better However, anyone is lying in one of those areas? This is another matter. There is nothing in the rules that prohibits such an action, meaning that players are authorized to remove their ball from, say, a fried egg lie and place it on a more manageable lie in the sand – again, assuming the new spot is within a length of the club where the ball originally came to rest.

Just such a situation unfolded Sunday at PNC after the Langers — Bernhard and his son, Jason — had played their shots on the par-5 14th, at which point they were tied for the lead at 24 under with Woods’ . After Jason went into the water left, the Langers had no choice but to play Bernhard’s ball, which landed in what appeared to be a bunker on the left side of the fairway but was actually considered a natural area. which meant the Langers were free to make contact with the sand with their practice swings.

When father and son reached the ball, they noticed something: a small pile of sand within a length of the ball of their orb. Recognizing that the small tower could actually act as a pillar for one of their shots, they collectively decided that, strategically, it would make more sense for their best ball striker – Bernhard – to take advantage from breaking the rules and putting the ball on the mound.

Jason struck first, from a more challenging lie. He grabbed a fairway wood chip and dropped the ball into the middle of the fairway but well short of the green. Then Bernhard came inside. Knowing he had the luxury of essentially lifting his ball and with only a small edge to hold, he made an aggressive club selection: driver.

“What do you think? THIS play?” anchor Dan Hicks said in an incredulous tone on the NBC broadcast.

“I’m loving every second of it, Dan,” said course reporter Jim “Bones” Mackay. “I think he thinks because he can putt the ball so nicely, he can get a lot of clubs on the ball here and get the ball on the green.”

Bernhard didn’t quite reach the green, but he came close. His ball rocketed and carried approximately 230 yards before settling into a bunker in front of the green, an effort that Tiger Woods later called “one of the best shots I’ve ever seen.” From there, he and Jason got up and down for a 4 birdie.

It wasn’t long before a screen grab of Bernhard’s determined lie began making the rounds of social networkswith no shortage of misinformed observers digging into the two-time Masters champion’s integrity. The thing was, Bernhard had done nothing wrong. He and his son had simply benefited from the same rules that were available to the rest of the field.

On Monday morning, Bernhard admitted in a phone interview with GOLF.com that he had been “very lucky” with his putt, but even if he had had a less favorable putt, he said, he thinks it was the result of his second shot. would have been similar. In that hypothetical scenario, Bernhard said, he likely would have hit a loose wood instead of a driver and landed just short of the green bunker, which would have left him and Jason with an excellent chance to rose up and down. Bernhard added that there also happened to be a fairway near his ball, which, had he placed his ball on the edge of the fairway, would also have given him a similarly elevated lie.

After the round, PGA Tour Champions official rules official Joe Terry consulted with Langers and confirmed that Bernhard was “in full compliance with the rules for a scrimmage,” a Tour spokesman told GOLF.com by email. “Joe is 100 percent certain that no foul play took place.”

Bernhard and Jason followed up their birdie on 14 with two more on 15 and 16, a par on 17 and a clutch 4 on the closest par-5 to secure a playoff with Tiger and Charlie. Both teams replayed the 18th in the playoff, which ended with Bernhard and Jason eyeing an 18-foot eagle effort for the win. Jason putt first.

“I thought he made it,” Bernhard would later say. “When his ball was six feet from the hole, it was supposed to break a little left and it didn’t. It just stayed there. I was almost in shock that he didn’t make it because he hit such a clean putt. I was the beneficiary of seeing what his ball did. I played less rest and mine was able to jump out there.”

That’s the thing about golf: when you rest, you’d be wise to do so.

Senior GOLF writer Josh Sens contributed to this report.