It’s the sort of moment you’d see on What Happens Next? It’s a ready-made highlight reel for social media.
From a greenside bunker at the 3rd hole, in the final round of the FedEx St Jude Championship, at TPC Southwind, Scottie Scheffler played his ball out and…
Incredibly it landed squarely on top of a sprinkler head, ran through the green, and into a penalty area.
It was a terrible piece of misfortune, not that it made that much difference to the American. He salvaged bogey and still won the tournament at a canter – streaking eight shots clear of Si Woo Kim.
But if it can happen to the World No. 1 it can happen to you in your weekend round. So is it just bad luck or is there anything that can come to your aid?
Scottie Scheffler hits sprinkler head: What do the rules say?
Even though a sprinkler head is an immovable obstruction, and you could take free relief if your ball ended up on one, or it interfered with your area of intended stance or swing, it is also an outside influence.
An outside influence is defined in the rules as “any natural or artificial object”. When a ball in motion accidentally hits an outside influence, Rule 11.1 says that while there is no penalty to any player, it must normally be played as it lies.
I say ‘normally’ because there are a couple of exceptions, such as if the ball comes to rest on an outside influence, or if you’re on the green and your ball in motion hits another ball at rest on the putting surface. That last one will bring the general penalty.
But in this case, there is no escape. It’s a terrible piece of misfortune – and golf is full of those moments. The only options are to wade into the water and have a go or take penalty area relief.
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Scheffler, probably sensibly, did the latter.
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Despite the changes to the Rules of Golf in 2019 and 2023, there are still some that leave us scratching our heads. I’ll try to help by featuring the best of your queries in this column.
Scottie Scheffler hits sprinkler head: Is it just part of the game, or should there be something in the rules to give you relief if you suffer this sort of misfortune? Let me know by leaving a comment below, or get in touch with us on X.
