Rules discussions are far from the most glamorous part of watching a professional golf tournament. Justin Thomas’ and Adam Scott’s nine-minute debate during the second round of the Wyndham Championship was a stern reminder in case you needed one.
Both players have plenty to play for, entering the week outside the top 70 in the FedEx Cup standings and on course to miss the end-of-season playoffs. But even with that on the line, their long, drawn-out rules discussion tested the patience of even the most ardent golf fans.
Having made solid starts to their respective rounds, the pair reached the eighth hole at Sedgefield Country Club. From there, both hooked their drives into a creek to the left of the fairway on the par four.
What could have been a simple penalty drop then proceeded to take around nine minutes as both players decided whether their balls had entered the creek in line with the fairway or the rough.
A PGA Tour rules official was consulted and even playing partner Shane Lowry was brought over to provide some insight on the situation, with the Irishman joking, “thanks for making me walk 150 yards” when he was relieved of his duties.
In the end, the players’ hunch was correct - their balls had hooked further than they initially suspected meaning they could take a drop in the fairway, rather than the rough. Not that it mattered much.
Thomas and Scott both missed short par putts and walked off with a pair of bogeys after 18 long minutes. Explaining the incident further, after the round, Thomas said: “We hooked the crap out of them, so they were moving a lot. It’s so hard to figure out, you know, exactly where it crossed in a situation like that.
“They were both very similar shots; they were just different clubs. I think we kind of both guessed when we first got there and then after taking the line of sight and going back and realizing it wasn’t in the fairway, we felt like we needed to look at it a little bit more because being able to put it in the fairway and get your hands on the ball was a big deal versus being in the first cut.
“We were both very comfortable that it was behind where it was, but optically that doesn’t look great, especially with three, four, five cameras right there on us. I think drops get abused a decent bit and we’re not those guys, but we just wanted to — we needed to make sure that it was done correctly because that’s not — that wasn’t in the nature of it; we just wanted to make sure all was okay.”
Thomas finished the day with a five-under-par round of 65 to move just outside the top 20. Scott, meanwhile, failed to capitalise on his promising first round, shooting a one-over-par round to drop back to T31 at -4.
