During Friday’s round at the PGA Championship, cameras caught Justin Thomas and Keegan Bradley in an animated discussion with a rules official, with the broadcast informing viewers that the two (along with Cameron Young) were put on the clock. It was a curious sight, especially since pace of play was slow throughout the field in Round 2, the byproduct of extremely tough pin positions and constant wind.

Following his second straight one-under round, Thomas was asked what happened during the interaction, confirming the group was put on the clock and that they didn’t agree with it.

“It’s hard because it’s kind of the whole time par thing. What is time par? How can time par on this course be the same when it’s blowing 25 and the pins are tough than if it’s not?” Thomas asked. “And does time par change every day? There’s just so many factors that go into it.

“We were behind. I’m not — I think that wasn’t our issue or being annoyed by it, it’s just the fact that we weren’t holding up the group behind us. They were about — it seemed like every time we were on the green, they were on the tee and so on and so forth.

“The hard part to me with the whole pace of play thing is that you, there’s so much that goes into golf and there’s so much that goes into hole to hole in terms of, are you hitting it close, are you able to tap it in, or you have to mark it, stuff like that, to where, are you holding the group up or are you not, to where it’s very hard to make that call. And we just didn’t agree with it, to be honest.”

Thomas said they were taken off the clock and within a hole were caught up. “It kind of goes to our point of why we didn’t think we should of, but it is what it is. It’s a part of it,” he explained.

Thomas said he and the group didn’t do anything differently, even joking that he backed off his first shot after being told to hurry up.

“It’s just, it’s so hard out here, and that’s the last thing I’m going to do is make a mistake because I feel like I’m rushing,” Thomas said. “If we were, for some reason, to get in a position where I was getting, we were getting bad times and we were continuing to be on, I would have had more discussions with the rules officials to kind of plead my case. But that was — it’s hard enough — I’m not going to sit out there and take two minutes, like that’s disrespectful to the field and everybody.”

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Bryson DeChambeau had an ugly opening nine on Thursday at the PGA Championship, where he went out in 39 on Aronimink’s back side. Things didn’t get much better after he made the turn, where he was puzzled by an odd rules situation at the par-4 second.

The two-time U.S. Open winner had a bad case of the rights all day, and he didn’t fix the issue at No. 2. He blocked his tee shot so far right it ended up on the steps of a hospitality tent, where he would be granted relief.

Just not quite the relief he thought, at least based off this exchange with a rules official that was captured on ESPN. “I’m so confused right now,” DeChambeau said. “I thought TIO (temporary immovable obstruction) you get one [club length] and then drop on the next?”

"I'm so confused right now."

Bryson DeChambeau had a hard time understanding the rules after his tee shot landed directly on the stairs pic.twitter.com/NIBs6K8A5E

— ESPN (@espn) May 14, 2026

By the sound of it, it seems DeChambeau was correct that he would get a second club length and then be able to take his drop in that relief area.

“Is there relief on this path?” DeChambeau asked. “Oh, it is, that’s what I thought.”

After taking his drop, DeChambeau managed to hit a beauty to 22 feet and two-putt for par. One of the few highlights of his first round. DeChambeau is currently seven over par with one hole remaining.

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Among the many terrific quotes from Garrick Higgo in the aftermath of his two-stroke penalty for arriving late to the tee on Thursday morning at the PGA Championship, one came from this gem of an exchange:

Q: Did you know you were a little bit late at that moment?

A: No, I wouldn’t have been late if I knew I was running late.

If that sounds like it belongs in an old compilation of Yogi Berra quotes—”nobody goes there anymore, it’s too crowded”—what came next might be even better, from his post-round interview on ESPN:

“I was obviously there on time, but late.”

Remarkably, after starting the day two strokes down before he ever made a swing, the South African Higgo played brilliant golf, finishing at “one under,” which belongs in quotes because without the penalty, he’d be tied for the lead at three under.

So what happened?

Per Higgo, there was no dramatic reason for showing up late, just that he cut it “a little fine” in departing the range.

“If you know me, then you know I am very casual and laid back,” he said. “I don’t want to be there 10 minutes early. I know that five minutes is fine. I thought I had time. I was obviously too casual.”

Before then, he said, everything was right on schedule. He saw his physio at 5:15 a.m., arrived at the gym at 5:30, putting green at 6, range at 6:30. But by the time he left the range, though, his caddie was yelling at him to hurry up, and he knew there would be trouble when he arrived at the tee.

According to the TV broadcast and the PGA of America, Higgo was there at 7:19 a.m., a minute and change beyond his tee time. The starter who greeted him at the tee told him he was late, and that he’d take a two-stroke penalty:

Garrick Higgo was penalized two strokes for being late to the tee for his opening round at the PGA Championship. pic.twitter.com/WFGX7fkLRE

— Golf on CBS (@GolfonCBS) May 14, 2026

After the round, though, Higgo told assembled media that he was there just 30 seconds late, hence the odd formulation of being “late, but on time,” which he repeated later, saying, “if you think about it, I was there on time, if you know what I mean.”

Here’s what he meant (we think): By the minute hand, he was “on time” in the sense that it was still 7:18, but by the second hand he was late, since the tee time is 7:18:00 and he claimed to be there at 7:18:30. Of course, this does not mean he was on time, and anyway, they clocked him at 7:19. Regardless, this seems to have been the substance of a roughly 20-minute discussion he held with the PGA of America after his round.

“I was just trying to get evidence,” he said of that meeting. “I feel like any of you would have done the same.”

He did acknowledge, however, that even being one second late was enough to incur the penalty and wasn’t protesting the lost strokes.

At the tee, Higgo apologised to his playing partners Michael Brennan and Shaun Micheel, but they were unbothered—Higgo was supposed to tee off last of the trio anyway—and they actually tried to argue his case. The PGA of America wasn’t budging, however, and the penalty stood.

Despite it all, the 27-year-old gained both strokes back by the end of the front nine, then went under par with birdies on 14 and 17 to finish with a 69 that, in strokes played, was a 67. He was proud of his performance despite the blunder to start, and he knows it could have been worse: If he had been five minutes late instead of one, he would have been disqualified from the tournament.

Now he just has to pray he doesn’t go on to lose by a shot.

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Ten years removed from winning the WGC-Cadillac Championship in the PGA Tour’s last visit to Doral Resort, Adam Scott returned this week to the Blue Monster as an “honorary” defending champion. The Miami resort that had hosted a popular tour event for more than five decades was added back to the schedule this year for the first time since 2016 with a “new” Cadillac signature event.

Scott’s fond memories of his last appearance at Doral, however, were muted during Thursday’s opening round, when the 45-year-old Aussie made a costly rules blunder. After two birdies offset by two bogeys on his opening seven holes, Scott pulled his tee shot into the rough on the par-5 eighth hole. He played his second shot out of the gnarly lie but when he was preparing for his third, he realized the ball that he hit wasn’t actually his.

Playing the wrong ball is a violation of Rule 6.3 and comes with a two-shot penalty. Thankfully for Scott, when he returned to the spot where he believed his original drive landed he managed to find that ball. From there, he played what counted as his fourth shot, putting his ball back in the fairway. He then hit the green from 147 yards with his fifth shot and two-putted from 15 feet for a double-bogey 7.

That's not the right ball

A nightmare at No. 8 for Adam Scott as he plays the wrong ball @Cadillac_Champ.

PGA TOUR LIVE on ESPN+ pic.twitter.com/fHcn1sivd6

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 30, 2026

While Scott was upset with transpired, it could have been worse. Had he not realised he had played a wrong ball, played out the hole with it and proceeded to tee off on the next hole, he would have been subject for disqualification. As our rules expert Ron Kaspriske pointed out in an edition of his weekly Rules Review department that focused on how to proceed after hitting a wrong ball, Rule 6.3 specifies that a player who plays a wrong ball must correct the mistake by going back and playing your ball to finish the hole.

And what would have happened if Scott, after becoming aware of hitting a wrong ball, couldn’t find his original ball in the rough? He would have had to play under the rules for a lost ball, adding another penalty stroke and proceeding back to the tee box, where he would have been hitting his fifth shot.

Scott proceeded to make eight straight pars after the blunder, then bogeyed the last two holes to post a four-over 76 and sit 12 shots back of early leader Cameron Young in the no-cut event.

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Sam Ryder explained how he “unintentionally cheated” last week to Ryan French on the Any Given Monday podcast. And that explanation makes perfect sense.

Earlier this year, the PGA Tour changed one of its most controversial rules regarding lift, clean and place. Instead of a getting a full club length relief when this local rule is in effect, players now can only move their golf ball the length of a scorecard.

Unfortunately, for Ryder, he forgot about that as he started a Monday qualifier for the Valspar Championship. Even more unfortunate for him is that he was playing well when he took himself out of the mix.

“I withdrew because I unintentionally cheated actually,” Ryder tells French. “Because it was lift, clean and place, which I knew was totally my fault, but I hadn’t played lift, clean and place yet under the new rule. And I played nine holes and I was three under and I was kind of cruising along. I think six under got through. I was playing fine and I realised I had not been doing scorecard length. So it didn’t really gain anything for me, but definitely knew there were a couple situations where, so I withdrew.”

That’s rough. But good on Ryder for doing the right thing. Here’s the clip:

In today’s episode of AGM we talk with @SamRyderSU about his 60 and why he WD from the Valspar Monday while he was in contention

Also talk with @ZackFisch3 about the pressure of having his season on the line.

Spotify: https://t.co/20ROvnu4F1
Apple: https://t.co/jCqxrAgjkW pic.twitter.com/paC6Rqedd7

— Monday Q Info (@acaseofthegolf1) March 25, 2026

And Ryder perhaps got some good karma for the WD. As he points out in the clip, he wound up getting into the field as an alternate and making the cut. And then at this week’s Monday qualifier for the Texas Children’s Houston Open, Ryder shot 60—without a caddie!—to earn his spot in this week’s PGA Tour event.

Sam Ryder pushed his own clubs today at the Houston Monday Q today.

The pushcart must have done a good job caddying.

He shot 60

— Monday Q Info (@acaseofthegolf1) March 23, 2026

Well played. Anyway, let’s hope this rule change doesn’t bite someone in a bigger spot down the line.

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The chapter title for Rule 8 in the Rules of Golf is pretty descript in terms of what happens when your ball ends up in a less-than-ideal lie. The title? “Course played as it is found.” It means, when your ball comes to rest, you normally have to accept the conditions affecting the stroke and not improve them before playing the ball.

If you read that last sentence carefully—the lawyer in you—you might have noticed the word “normally”. The rules makers at the USGA and R&A added that word because there are some instances when you don’t have to play it as it lies. The obvious would be when obstructions like cement cart paths impact your shot. The less obvious would be when your ball is slightly embedded in its own impact crater.

But what if you came to your ball in the fairway and saw it was perfectly clean and sitting up nicely. Then another player in your group hit a shot and mud from his or her divot landed on your ball. Could you mark the ball, pick it up and clean it before replacing it?

While you might know that mud is considered a loose impediment and you are allowed to remove loose impediments around your ball, you also probably know the ball can’t move as a result of that clean-up job unless it’s on the putting green (Rule 15.1). So do you now have to play a mud ball?

Rule 8.1d address this situation, and more broadly any situation when the conditions of your stance, swing or lie are worsened after the ball came to rest. The answer to whether you can mark, lift and clean your ball is yes. Not only can you clean the ball, you also can do some tidying to restore the conditions around your ball if things have worsened as a result of the other player’s shot.

In fact, in most instances when your ball comes to rest but then something worsens the conditions of your lie, stance, swing (even the line of play or the relief area if you’re about to drop or place), you can restore things to the way they were. The rule book says to restore the area “as nearly as possible” to its original condition. But if you can’t easily restore it, you can “lift and replace the ball by placing it on the nearest spot (not nearer the hole) that has the most similar conditions affecting the stroke, is within one clublength of its original spot and is in the same area of the course as that spot.”

Sorry, that’s a lot to digest, but just know if you can’t make it like it was, you have the right to move the ball.

Now there are some things to remember when applying Rule 8.1. If you or your caddie are responsible for worsening the conditions, you can’t clean the ball or restore you lie. So if you’re taking practice swings on a muddy day, keep that in mind. Also, if your lie was good and then it starts pouring, you have to play it as it lies if the turf is getting a lot softer unless it’s now sitting in temporary water.

MORE GOLF DIGEST RULES REVIEWS

My opponent drove in front of me and I hit his golf buggy. Who gets the penalty stroke?

Can you be penalized for playing music on a golf course?

Our match is going to extra holes

My ball is just outside a ‘no play zone.’ Can I stand in it to hit my shot?

Can I use a long putter when measuring my relief area?

I’m hitting a 6-iron on a par 3. Can I use my driver to measure the teeing area?

Can you hit a provisional ball after hitting a shot into a penalty area?

My opponent took a generous drop after hitting into a hazard. Can he be DQ’d for that?

Can I clean mud off my golf ball while playing a hole?

Can you repair divot holes or pitch marks in your line before hitting a shot?

I just played the wrong ball. What do I do now?

You’re playing a Titleist. Two holes later, it’s a Callaway. Is switching golf balls mid-round allowed?

Can you be penalised for putting tape on a golf glove? Actually …

My opponent’s ball is in my peripheral vision. Can I ask him to move it?

I knocked it stiff on a par 3 and didn’t putt it. What score do I put down for my handicap?

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Golfers new to the game are often unaware that it’s a penalty to repair a pitch mark or replace a divot if it’s on your line of play (Rule 8.1). By doing so, you’re improving your next shot and that runs against one of golf’s main principles—play the course as it lies. Fortunately, golf’s governing bodies have softened their stance on things that formerly were a penalty such as removing stones in a bunker and repairing shoe damage such as cleat marks on a putting green.

Where things get a little unclear, however, are actions taken in a bunker that some might consider testing the surface or improving the conditions affecting the stroke. Let’s quickly review what is and isn’t a penalty.

Under Rule 12.2b, you can do things such as lean on a club that touches the surfaces of the bunker while waiting to hit a shot. You also can smooth the sand with the rake before playing from a bunker as long as you are doing it to clean up footprints, etc., and not to learn how firm or fluffy it might be.

You are not, though, allowed to rake anywhere you want without getting in trouble. If you rake the sand in front of your ball on the line you intend to hit the shot, that’s likely considered improving conditions affecting the stroke (8.1a/1) and comes with the general penalty (two shots in stroke play or loss of hole in match play).

The word “likely” is important here as there could be a compelling argument that your action of raking in front of the ball did not improve conditions. However, it’s doubtful you could talk your way out of a penalty. Ironically, if the ruling didn’t go your way and you struck the sand in anger as a result, there’s no penalty for that.

Improving conditions in sand is not just something you see in amateur golf. Patrick Reed was penalised for doing it at the 2019 Hero World Challenge. He removed some sand from behind his ball in a waste area and was penalised two shots.

A closer look at Patrick Reed’s two-stroke penalty during Round 3 of the Hero World Challenge. pic.twitter.com/z2aqkajnYq

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) December 7, 2019

The takeaway is you’re probably OK to rake a bunker before hitting your shot, like when you drag the rake behind you to cover your own footprints, but when you get up around your ball, don’t do anything that can be construed as improving conditions.

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MORE GOLF DIGEST RULES REVIEWS

My opponent drove in front of me and I hit his golf buggy. Who gets the penalty stroke?

Can you be penalized for playing music on a golf course?

Our match is going to extra holes

My ball is just outside a ‘no play zone.’ Can I stand in it to hit my shot?

Can I use a long putter when measuring my relief area?

I’m hitting a 6-iron on a par 3. Can I use my driver to measure the teeing area?

Can you hit a provisional ball after hitting a shot into a penalty area?

My opponent took a generous drop after hitting into a hazard. Can he be DQ’d for that?

Can I clean mud off my golf ball while playing a hole?

Can you repair divot holes or pitch marks in your line before hitting a shot?

I just played the wrong ball. What do I do now?

You’re playing a Titleist. Two holes later, it’s a Callaway. Is switching golf balls mid-round allowed?

Can you be penalised for putting tape on a golf glove? Actually …

My opponent’s ball is in my peripheral vision. Can I ask him to move it?

I knocked it stiff on a par 3 and didn’t putt it. What score do I put down for my handicap?

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The offending action? These golfers place a ball marker down in front of the ball, not behind it. We’ll explain the legalities of this practice in a moment. But in terms of the deception, let’s assume you didn’t notice how they marked. They’re banking on you being oblivious, so when it comes time to replace the ball, they put it down in front of the marker, positioning themselves closer to the hole then when the ball came to a stop on the green. It might not amount to much in terms of the outcome of the ensuing putt—an inch or two perhaps—but it does put their ball slightly closer to the hole and, most importantly, in the wrong place.

Under the Rules of Golf, if they hit the putt, you can call them out for violating Rule 14.7 (playing from the wrong place). It’s a two-stroke penalty (stroke play) or loss of hole (match play). In stroke play, in addition to the penalty, you have to replay the stroke if it’s considered a serious breach of the rule. A serious breach occurs when the player gets a significant advantage in playing from the wrong place. Could the cheater argue that moving the ball an inch closer to the hole did not provide a significant advantage? Sure, but go ahead and try that argument with the committee and we’ll see how it goes.

OK, with that out of the way, let’s get back to the annoyance at hand. You’re playing with someone who puts a ball marker down in front of the ball on the line of putt. Is that legal to do?

Yes, under Rule 14, you can mark a ball anywhere on the golf course so long as the mark is behind the ball or “next” to it. “Next” can mean to the side of it or even to the front of it. The key here is to replace your ball in the exact spot where it was lifted.

This rule (known at the time as Rule 20-7c) famously came into play for Lexi Thompson at the 2017 ANA Inspiration. Thompson was assessed a four-stroke penalty mid-way through her Sunday final round. The violation occurred during Saturday’s third round, TV cameras showing Thompson re-placing her ball on the green in the wrong spot from where it stopped originally. LPGA officials didn’t become aware of the issue until Sunday when informed by a call-in from a viewer and ended up penalizing Thompson two strokes for playing from the wrong spot and two strokes for signing an incorrect scorecard. Thompson would ultimately lose the tournament in a playoff to So Yeon Ryu. Later that year, the USGA and R&A and major pro tours adopted a policy that it would no longer take calls as part of a change in how its video review protocols.

Jeff Gross

So if that golfer is driving you nuts by placing his ball marker down in front of his ball, just make sure he’s putting it back in the same spot each time.

Main image: Hector Vivas

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My opponent drove in front of me and I hit his golf buggy. Who gets the penalty stroke?

Can you be penalized for playing music on a golf course?

Our match is going to extra holes

My ball is just outside a ‘no play zone.’ Can I stand in it to hit my shot?

Can I use a long putter when measuring my relief area?

I’m hitting a 6-iron on a par 3. Can I use my driver to measure the teeing area?

Can you hit a provisional ball after hitting a shot into a penalty area?

My opponent took a generous drop after hitting into a hazard. Can he be DQ’d for that?

Can I clean mud off my golf ball while playing a hole?

Can you repair divot holes or pitch marks in your line before hitting a shot?

I just played the wrong ball. What do I do now?

You’re playing a Titleist. Two holes later, it’s a Callaway. Is switching golf balls mid-round allowed?

Can you be penalised for putting tape on a golf glove? Actually …

My opponent’s ball is in my peripheral vision. Can I ask him to move it?

I knocked it stiff on a par 3 and didn’t putt it. What score do I put down for my handicap?

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You might know some golfers at your club or course who have a habit of raking putts that are not “gimmes.” They might even pick up their ball after a hole has been decided in match play, even though they still had some work to do to earn the bogey they want to put down on the card.

Can you pencil in whatever score you want on a scorecard when your ball is in your pocket? If you’re playing by the official Rules of Handicapping, the answer is an emphatic no.

Rule 3.3 covers what to do when a hole is started but you don’t hole out. Subject to other provisions in the handicapping rules, you must record your most likely score or net double bogey, whichever is lower, “as appropriate for the situation and depending on the format of play.”

We bolded “most likely score” because it’s important to follow the guidelines the USGA outlines. That score would be:

• The number of strokes already taken to reach a position on a hole, plus
• The number of strokes the player would most likely require to complete the hole from that position, plus
• Any penalty strokes incurred during play of the hole.

You might have thought you have to take net double bogey when you pick up for handicap purposes. That’s not true. In the case of a player who knocks it stiff on a par 3 and rakes the ball, Rule 3.3 says one stroke should be added to the score for handicap purposes (so it’s a birdie). Any putt on the green from five feet or closer is considered made.

If a ball is between five and 20 yards from the hole and a golfer picked up, that player would add either two or three strokes to the scores. The number depends on the ability of the golfer and/or the difficulty of the hole (it’s at your discretion).

Finally, if they were outside of 20 yards, golfers add three or four strokes. In most cases, you would likely be at a maximum of net double bogey, but not always. A 30-handicap on a hard hole might add four shots to his or her score when picking up after hitting a tee shot out of bounds on the No. 1 handicap hole, but that would add up to a score of 6 when a net double bogey for that golfer would be an 8. Don’t forget, that golfer gets two shots on the harder holes.

Two other things to note about Rule 3.3: There is no limit to pick-up holes recorded for handicap purposes provided you had a valid reason for continuing to scoop up your ball. But if you pick up while using a format where holing out is mandatory (a “rattle-bottom” tournament, for example), you’d be disqualified for doing so.

Main image: Franck Fife

MORE GOLF DIGEST RULES REVIEWS

My opponent drove in front of me and I hit his golf buggy. Who gets the penalty stroke?

Can you be penalized for playing music on a golf course?

Our match is going to extra holes

My ball is just outside a ‘no play zone.’ Can I stand in it to hit my shot?

Can I use a long putter when measuring my relief area?

I’m hitting a 6-iron on a par 3. Can I use my driver to measure the teeing area?

Can you hit a provisional ball after hitting a shot into a penalty area?

My opponent took a generous drop after hitting into a hazard. Can he be DQ’d for that?

Can I clean mud off my golf ball while playing a hole?

Can you repair divot holes or pitch marks in your line before hitting a shot?

I just played the wrong ball. What do I do now?

You’re playing a Titleist. Two holes later, it’s a Callaway. Is switching golf balls mid-round allowed?

Can you be penalised for putting tape on a golf glove? Actually …

My opponent’s ball is in my peripheral vision. Can I ask him to move it?

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You also might know that if someone’s ball is on your line of play, and there is a reasonable chance your ball might collide with it when it’s your turn to hit, you can have it marked. It doesn’t matter where the ball is on the course.

You also might know that if another ball interferes with your stance or swing, you can make its owner mark and remove it. Or if it’s stroke play, that golfer can play first.

But what happens when you and another player in your group hit shots that end up near each other, but neither are on the other’s line of play or interfere with taking a stance or making a swing? When you go to address your ball and you look down, you catch a fairly distracting glimpse of the other ball in the corner of your eye. Worse, it’s flourescent yellow. What do the Rules of Golf have to say if you want that ball marked and removed?

You have to consult Rule 15.3b to find out. The answer is, you can make that player mark and remove the ball if, and this is important, the ball is “close enough to distract” you in making the stroke. What constitutes “close enough?” That’s somewhat subjective, but you’re likely not going to get what you want if it’s not reasonable to assume the other ball is bothersome. And in stroke play, the other player has the option of playing before you rather than marking.

There are a few more things to remember about Rule 15.3b. The first is that if a player is requested to lift his or her ball, it first must be marked and it cannot be cleaned (except on the putting green). It’s a one-stroke penalty for failing to mark a ball or cleaning a lifted ball under this rule. Also, it’s a penalty if you are trying to be a good samaritan and lift your own ball assuming it might be distracting to another player or possibly be on his or her line of play. If you mark and lift without being required to do so, you get a one-stroke penalty.

It’s a good idea to wait to see what the other player wants to do, if anything.

Main image: Santeri Viinamäki

MORE GOLF DIGEST RULES REVIEWS

My opponent drove in front of me and I hit his golf buggy. Who gets the penalty stroke?

Can you be penalized for playing music on a golf course?

Our match is going to extra holes

My ball is just outside a ‘no play zone.’ Can I stand in it to hit my shot?

Can I use a long putter when measuring my relief area?

I’m hitting a 6-iron on a par 3. Can I use my driver to measure the teeing area?

Can you hit a provisional ball after hitting a shot into a penalty area?

My opponent took a generous drop after hitting into a hazard. Can he be DQ’d for that?

Can I clean mud off my golf ball while playing a hole?

Can you repair divot holes or pitch marks in your line before hitting a shot?

I just played the wrong ball. What do I do now?

You’re playing a Titleist. Two holes later, it’s a Callaway. Is switching golf balls mid-round allowed?

Can you be penalised for putting tape on a golf glove? Actually …

The post Rules of Golf Review: My opponent’s ball is in my peripheral vision. Can I ask him to move it? appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.