You can drop your clubs and you can lose your score, but as it turns out, it’s very difficult to do both. That’s what Ryo Hisatsune learned the painful way Sunday afternoon at Australian Open.
Hisatsune was grinding out the end of a challenging week at Royal Melbourne when he hit the green on the 8th hole, a long par-4. From the green, he faced a classic Australian golf tee with sand belt: A test putt from a firm lie on a green protected by large mushrooms.
But as luck would have it, the chip would be like that at least of Hisatsune’s concerns on the 8th hole. His biggest problem? or accomplished fact between its 56 degrees and gravity.
As he walked to his tee shot, Hisatsune’s caddy Taiga Tabuchi handed him his wedge. But then, as Hisatsune stepped out to address the ball, something went wrong: his club slipped through his hands and fell to the ground, hitting his golf ball and sending it hurtling several meters in the other direction.
Now, in some cases, this kind of nonchalance would be little more than cause for a laugh. According to the rule 9.4 of the Rules of Golfplayers are permitted to replace their ball without penalty if such action occurs on the putting surface or in the hitting zone, if it occurs while searching for a lost ball, or if a “reasonable action” has caused the ball to move, such as removing a loose obstruction or pulling another ball.
But because Hisatsune’s hiccup wasn’t covered by these actions, the punishment was a bit more severe than ‘replace and forget’. Hisatsune was assessed a one-stroke penalty and instructed to return his ball to its original position.
The bad news for Hisatsune is that his crash at the club made it a difficult but impossible level. After receiving confirmation from a rules official, he jumped onto the green and quickly birdied a double 6 – the first of two such big numbers on Sunday afternoon that he ended the day and his weekend at 6 o’clock later in a tie for 51st.
The good news was that the damage was done almost immediately. Hisatsune was able to return his ball to its original position and continue in his round with only a one-stroke penalty.
And maybe a better grip on his wedges.
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