‘I thought it was the greatest par of my life’: PGA Tour star caught up in bizarre rules violation
Dylan Frittelli thought he’d made the most unlikely of pars when his ball caught up in a tree at the RBC Heritage – only for the Rules of Golf to drag him kicking and screaming back down to earth.
The South African had hoiked his drive at the 428-yard 6th hole at Harbour Town, but when he got down there found his ball suspended in the branches of a wispy tree.
After a bit of deliberation, Frittelli decided to get creative and used his driver to bat the ball back into the fairway.
From around 144 yards, he knocked it to 10 feet and drained the putt, calling it the “greatest par of my life”.
But he was later handed a two-shot penalty. Watch the video and see if you can catch it…
I thought this would be the greatest Par of my life I was assessed a 2-stroke penalty for “standing astride” my intended line of play during this shot. The rules of golf remain undefeated ✌ @SportsCenter top 10 play maybe? pic.twitter.com/KvnIIsXuQ9
— Dylan Frittelli (@Dylan_Frittelli) April 17, 2022
The PGA Tour confirmed Frittelli was “assessed a two-stroke penalty on No 6 under Rule 10.1c”.
This rule reads that a player “must not make a stroke from a stance with a foot deliberately placed on each side of, or with either foot deliberately touching, the line of play or an extension of that line behind the ball”.
Frittelli didn’t agree with the ruling. “I told them I was aiming 20-feet to the left to get it down the fairway and the lie caused it to go more right,” he later tweeted. “They didn’t think it was sufficient.”
The 31-year-old, whose sole PGA Tour win came at the 2019 John Deere Classic, finished in a tie for 66th, 14 shots back of winner Jordan Spieth.
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Alex Perry
Alex has been the editor of National Club Golfer since 2017. A Devonian who enjoys wittering on about his south west roots, Alex moved north to join NCG after more than a decade in London, the last five of which were with ESPN. Away from golf, Alex follows Torquay United and spends too much time playing his PlayStation or his guitar and not enough time practising his short game.
