“I had a funny situation”

What happened on the 9th, asked the reporter Corey Conners. A good question, although if you happen to be in a hurry here, you probably wish the writer had asked this instead:

What he didn’t happen?

On Friday, after his second round in the sentryPGA Tour season opener, Conners offered some insight. Notably, he birdied the 545-yard par-5 at Kapalua’s Plantation Course, which stood out in its own right in his round of seven-under 66 — but HOW he bogeyed can also be of interest, especially the sequence that unlocked the four incident rules.

Conners said of it all, “I had a funny situation.”

Here’s how things turned out:

— His T-shirt shot left to the right. “I just took an uncommitted swing off the tee,” Conners said.

– His ball ended up in the “tall grass,” where Conners said it was embedded. He called an official.

“So I had the official there,” Conners said, “and I was trying to get rid of the embedded ball, and I wasn’t entitled to it because I didn’t really have a shot. Which, I didn’t have a shot. If the ball mine wouldn’t have been closed, I would have gotten an unplayable. I could have argued maybe I could have swung.”

Wait. Why wasn’t Conners relieved here? This is written in Rule 16.3a(1)where it says: “No relief under rule 16.3b: When playing the ball as it is is clearly unreasonable because of something from which the player is not allowed to take free relief (such as when a player is not in able to make a shot because of where the ball lies in a bush).

(Especially, according to the rules“a committee may adopt a local rule limiting the relief for a ball embedded in those parts of the general area cut to the height of the fairway or less.”)

— Conners made a one-shot drop for a foul ball, designated under Rule 19.2.

– But now?

“The Shot Link tower was in my way,” Conners said, “so I got a point.”

This falls under relief from temporary immovable encumbrances. (The USGA provides a wonderfully detailed description of TIOs in a pamphlet that can be found here.)

– But now?

“I was on the cart path, I was relieved by that,” Conners said.

This comes through Rule 16.1which determines relief from abnormal flow conditions.

— Finally, Conners played three shots and he drove the ball into the distance. From there, he pitched to 14 feet, then missed the first shot and finished with a bogey.

“It was created by a weak machine,” Conners said. “I gave myself a good shot, but I wasn’t able to convert it.”

With that, Conners’ post-round press conference was done, and he apparently headed off to relax.