PGA Tour: Hideki Matsuyama, FedEx St. Jude ruling defined

Hideki Matsuyama’s two-shot victory in Memphis was something however anticlimactic, a stark departure from what number of envisioned how the FedEx St. Jude Championship would play out.

After making his second birdie of the day on the par-3 eleventh, Matsuyama walked over to the twelfth gap with full management of the match, main by 5 at 19-under-par. He then missed the golf green left on this dogleg proper par-4, which has water all up the best facet. However earlier than reaching the pond that comes into play, PGA Tour chief referee Gary Younger chased down Matsuyama to debate an incident from the seventh gap.

On that 475-yard par-4, Matsuyama missed the inexperienced proper, and his ball got here to relaxation into a group space beneath the floor. However his method landed simply off the inexperienced, creating a giant pitch mark that wanted restore. So, Matsuyama, earlier than enjoying his third shot, walked as much as the inexperienced and, after fixing the mark, stamped it down together with his foot.

But, Matsuyama regarded awfully near violating Rule 8.1 from the Guidelines of Golf, which offers with ‘Participant’s Actions That Enhance Circumstances Affecting the Stroke.’

On this case, Matsuyama appeared to have improved the situation of the course inside his line of play, a violation of this rule. Primarily, a participant has to play the course as they discover it and never enhance its situation for their very own aggressive benefit. Ought to a participant accomplish that, a two-shot penalty is assessed.

“At that time, it was a query of whether or not or not it was on [Matsuyama’s] line of play,” Younger mentioned to the Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis after.

Photograph by Andy Lyons/Getty Photographs

“A few the video angles confirmed that it was shut. Shut sufficient to should have that dialog with him, and sadly, we needed to do it mid-round with him, which is rarely comforting, going out and speaking to a participant. Nevertheless it may have an effect on his technique for the remainder of the spherical if he was going to get a two-stroke penalty.”

Matsuyama’s pitch mark was about three toes to the best of his meant line in the direction of the opening—shut proximity for an newbie participant however not for a PGA Tour professional, not to mention a Masters champion.

“I merely needed to ask him the query, and he did recall the state of affairs; I requested him, ‘What precisely did you do, and why did you do it?’ And he simply mentioned that it was one thing he usually does if he has a pitch mark, and he felt that it was nowhere close to his line of play,” Younger added.

“And that was why he stepped it down.”

The principles committee decided to not assess a penalty towards Matsuyama as a result of he correctly mounted his ball mark on the inexperienced, which is totally warranted beneath Rule 8.1b.

Younger confidently agreed with the choice, too. He felt that Matsuyama didn’t intend to enhance his line of play. He additionally added that everybody, from the committee to the United States Golf Affiliation (USGA)—whom he consulted about this choice—felt assured in regards to the consequence.

“It was actually a non-issue,” Matsuyama mentioned to the Golf Channel after by means of an interpreter.

“They simply wished to verify and be sure that the foundations had been saved, which they had been. And it actually didn’t have an effect on me the remainder of the day. If I used to be fearful that I had achieved one thing unsuitable, that will have rattled me. Nevertheless it was actually a non-issue, so it was high quality.”

Regardless, this example will need to have affected Matsuyama’s play considerably.

When Younger addressed him, Matsuyama held a five-shot lead. However by the point Matsuyama teed off on the par-5 sixteenth gap, 4 holes later, he confronted a one-shot deficit to Viktor Hovland. Matsuyama three-putted for bogey on 12, discovered the water on 14, and made a sloppy double-bogey on the fifteenth, thus ramping up the drama in Memphis.

“Sadly, we had been watching the remainder of his spherical and seeing what was occurring, and I felt actually dangerous to have presumably affected him, however that’s the troublesome a part of our job,” Younger added.

“We do have to name that to the participant’s consideration for the remainder of their spherical.”

The PGA Tour’s ruling actually obtained the golf world’s consideration, too, because it grew to become an intriguing storyline because the spherical wore on. Nevertheless it additionally served as a vital tipping level, with Matsuyama fully collapsing over the following 4 holes. And but, just like the true champion that he’s, Matsuyama righted the ship on the proper time, birdied the difficult seventeenth and 18th holes, and received by two.

Jack Milko is a golf workers author for SB Nation’s Enjoying By way of. Make sure you try @_PlayingThrough for extra golf protection. You possibly can comply with him on Twitter @jack_milko as properly.