Fan interference?
A spectator on the first hole helped Tiger Woods by swatting at his errant tee shot to keep it from going further left. The ball ricocheted back towards the fairway, staying in the rough. Tiger ended up saving par, when it might have been worse.
Should there be a rule to address this situation, or should a player be allowed to benefit from fan interference?
6 Comments:
Two things:
First, I think that there should be some sort of rule on positive fan interference. If some fan jumped out and threw the ball 40 yards further downfield, there'd be a huge media outcry, but in essence that's basically what this guy did, because even Tiger probably wouldn't have a shot otherwise.
Second, this isn't the first time I believe that Tiger has benefited from "his crowd", incidental hits and pushing of rocks aside. I can't remember what tournament it was, I think it was the PGA a number of years ago. He hit a shot wildly off course, and the television camera followed it as it went bounding into some bushes. Some fan was chasing after it, runs into the bushes, and after a short pause the ball comes bounding out of the bushes, followed by the fan. Even the announcers made a comment about hoping it wasn't fan interference.
There is a rule but, a rules official has to see the interference. No penalty to the golfer. However, the official must make his best determination as to where the ball would have come to rest without the interference and the golfer must play from there.
The key, if this type of behavior increases, is to have officials along the line of play.
Now we know the reason for Tiger's success: fans always throw his ball back into play!!
Thanks, e-man for this invaluable insight!
Did I saw always? Hardly. Please don't sensationalize my comments.
If somone can back me up on what I remeber, I would appreciate it. I saw it again recently on one of these TGC "Tiger's Greatest Shots" shows, because the recovery shot he hit after the ball bounded out of the bush was amazing, and they set it up in that context.
If no one can back me up, well, I'll go back to wearing my tinfoil hat to keep the Illuminati from reading my thoughts.
E-Man, your off on this one. First of all (as already correctly stated) and official would place the ball where it likely would have gone if he had seen it,so there's already a rule in place.
Secondly, Woods had no shot at the green from where the ball ended up, and he punched out to the fairway. Lanny Wadkins mentioned on today's broadcast that it would have probably been better for Tiger if the fan hadn't grabbed the ball.
How about Phil Mickelson getting relief from a drain that was in the primary rough and he gets to drop onto the fringe? That's garbage, and it saved him at least one shot!
I love how people love to go after Tiger for rules infractions. How about at the British Open where fans were taking pictures on nearly every one of his shots? Where were you then? How about when the guy threw the apple across the green at the Buick? Where were you then? You were probably the guy who thought Tiger was cheating at the Masters when he tapped-in from 1" with the end of his putter!
Can someone help me, please.
I keep hearing that there is a rule to cover this situation. Specifically, what rule number is this covered under?
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