PGA Tour golfer explains bizarre rules incident involving toddler

PGA Tour golfer Beau Hossler was granted free relief during Saturday's third round of the Wyndham Championship after a toddler wandered onto the course during a weather delay and stepped on the spot where he had marked his ball.

Hossler was playing the 18th hole at Sedgefield Country Club in North Carolina when thunderstorms forced a suspension of play.

As is standard, Hossler marked the spot where his ball had come to rest in the rough with a white flag.

He was preparing to make a beeline for the clubhouse when he noticed a little girl slip beneath the gallery rope and accidentally step on the spot where his ball had been resting.

When play resumed an hour later, Hossler immediately alerted a rules official.

CBS's microphones picked up the 31-year-old saying: "She didn't step on the ball, I had already picked it up, but she stepped on it.

"That's why this tee that I just picked up was all the way in there, because she'd stepped on it."

The rules official replied: "It looked like she was on this side of the flag from the video we saw."

Hossler said: "Look, I'm not saying it's better or worse, I was just letting you know that that area, after picking up the ball, she was standing on it.

"It was sitting like every other lie, just halfway down."

In the end, the rules official accepted Hossler's account and he was allowed to move his ball inches away to a lie that represented what it had been before it was trampled.

He found the green with his approach and two-putted for par from 50 feet to sign for a 66.

Hossler, who has never won on the PGA Tour despite making more than 250 starts, will enter the final round tied for the lead with his compatriot Michael Brennan on 16-under.

He has held the 54-hole lead five times in his career but is yet to convert.

Asked about the incident after his round, Hossler said: "Yeah, so basically I hit that tee ball. It was sitting certainly not great.

"Certainly seen worse, but it was kind of a medium to below average lie, I would say, and then I marked the ball with the weather delay, and then somehow I turned around and there was a little girl standing on my mark.

"So anyways, point being is I just wanted to inform the rules staff that that had happened.

"Obviously when you come back to finish the round, you try to just recreate the lie as best as possible, but in that situation, I was worried that it might have affected how that grass was sitting, just obviously with whatever.

"With that being said, once it rained and we had an hour or whatever it ended up being, when I came back, it looked more or less the same, just more wet."

Hossler added that he knows shooting level par in the final round will not be good enough to secure his first win.

"I've played a lot of good golf in my career," he said. “

"I've won a lot of golf tournaments. I haven't done it at this level yet. I know it's going to be a challenge.

"Even par is not going to cut it tomorrow, so I need to come out from the first hole and be looking to get the ball in play off the tee and give myself birdie looks. I really am happy with the way I'm putting. My iron play feels like it's coming around a little bit."

Hossler said whatever happens he has to remind himself that it's "just golf". 

"I'm very lucky to be out here playing awesome golf courses, meeting great people, trying to compete and live out our dreams," he said.

"That's a pretty cool thing to do."