Unusual rules incident sees 14 players DISQUALIFIED
A mix-up on a tee box at the Verrado Founders Championship caused 14 players to be DQ'd from the event.
We all love a bit of rules controversy, don't we? Well we might not have any PGA Tour action to report about right now, but a bizarre rules gaffe at the Outlaw Tour’s Verrado Founders Championship ended with 14 players being disqualified from the event.
Monday Q Info first tweeted the incident earlier this week, when some misleading information on the tee box of a par-3 caused a mass disqualification.
The tweet said: “Tee was set at the 204 plate, scorecard showed hole at 222. First group teed of (sic) on the wrong tee, and since there was a backup on that hole other groups followed. But there was no info from starter that tees had been moved, no rules sheet etc.”
Explanation of what happened:
Tee was set at the 204 plate, scorecard showed hole at 222. First group teed of on the wrong tee, and since there was a backup on that hole other groups followed.
But there was no info from starter that tees had been moved, no rules sheet etc.— Monday Q Info (@acaseofthegolf1) March 31, 2020
If you check out the tweet above, it seems the incident took place on the par-3 3rd hole.
According to the Rules of Golf, if a player plays their shot from the wrong tee box “the player gets the general penalty (two penalty strokes) and must correct the mistake by playing a ball from inside the teeing area. If the player does not correct the mistake before making a stroke to begin another hole or, for the final hole of the round, before returning his or her scorecard, the player is disqualified."
According to one of the players who was disqualified amongst the madness, the scorecard that each player was given by the Tour showed the yardage that they all played from.
The player argued that had the scorecard shown the correct yardage, none of the players would have hit their shot from the wrong tee box, but Jesse Burghart - organiser of the Verrado Founders Championship - stands by the decision to disqualify the 14 players from the event, in which each player paid an $875 entry fee.
“I stand by my decision to uphold the integrity of the game and the Rules of Golf,” Burghart said in a statement. “Penalty for breach of rules is disqualification. It’s very black and white and one of the most important rules to follow. I’ve heard all the name calling and peanut gallery remarks. At the end of the day we are supposed to be professional golfers. Ultimately it’s your decision to be one or not.”
