The game of golf is full of bizarre rules situations, and at the Sanderson Farms Championship on Saturday, viewers got to see a rare ruling play out in real time.
On the par-4 15th hole at the Country Club of Jackson, tournament contenders Garrick Higgo and Eric Cole hit their drives into the front right greenside bunker. When they arrived to hit their second shots, they found their balls nestled together in the sand. What do you do in that situation? Even the players needed extensive direction from the on-site rules official.
According to the information relayed on the broadcast, Higgo was the first to play off the tee. His ball left a track in the bunker before coming to rest. Cole then hit his tee shot to the same place, and Cole’s ball followed Higgo’s track, pushing Higgo’s ball into a more buried lie before settling right next to it.
The rules official directed Higgo to play first, so Cole was able to mark his ball with a tee and then move it one club-length to the side so the tee wouldn’t interfere with Higgo’s shot.
Because Cole’s shot moved Higgo’s ball, once Cole marked, Higgo replaced his ball as close as he possibly could to where his ball originally ended up — essentially in the position where Cole’s ball came to rest. Once Higgo played his shot, the bunker could be raked, Cole’s ball could be replaced, and he could play his second shot. No penalty was assessed to either player.
“I’ve had the opposite of [the bunker situation on 15] before,” Higgo said after his round. “At Sea Island a couple of years ago, I was playing with Brian Gay on 18, he hit it in the greenside bunker, and I hit it after him in his pitch mark, which is the opposite of this, and I had to play that one because it was already like that before I hit. This one, I hit first, so I apparently was entitled to the lie that I had.”
Garrick Higgo sinks 5-foot birdie putt on No. 15 at Sanderson Farms
For Higgo, the ruling caused zero disruption to his game. He hit the bunker shot to five feet, then drained the putt for birdie. Cole followed with his own bunker shot to 12 feet but missed the birdie putt to settle for a par. Higgo currently leads the tournament by two shots heading into the final round.
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