Law of surprise at Farmers Insurance Open

The first round took place under the dry sun, light wind. However, the Organizer still maintains “preferred lies” usually for wet or snowy weather.

“Due to heavy rain on Friday forecast and Farmers Insurance Open on both grounds, ‘preferred lies’ will be active for the first and next round,” PGA Tour announced on Twitter.

This move is said to ensure fairness for all players to alternate hitting on the North and South pitches, early par72 in the first two stages of the tournament before the complicated local weather. South yard alone will be for the last two rounds.

“I think they’re trying to keep the fairness every day, right? It’s beautiful today, so there is no need to preferred lies. But the story will be different if it rains tomorrow. I think the organizers are one step ahead like that. We’ll wait and see, “commented golfer Sam Burns.

On the opening day, Burns hit 66 strokes on North field, thereby finishing T4 with a score of -6. This group a total of 12 people, in which Peter Malnati and Ryan Palmer hit the South Stadium. They are two sticks behind Patrick Reed and Alex Noren at the top of the group. Reed scored eight birdies, and Noren had seven birds and one eagle. Scottie Scheffler is third (score -7), with five birdies, one eagle. Both top 3 after 18 holes in the opening round on North field and are not bogey.

Bonus fund this year is still 7.5 million USD. Last year, Marc Leishman won the championship at -15, earning $ 1.35 million.

When using “preferred lies”, the golfer is lifted and wiped off the unfavorable mud or soil when handling the situation in the present location and then continues to fight. This, experts call it “lift-clean-place” (original term: lift-clean-place). It is only valid when the ball enters any game field surface that is horizontal or below the fairway level, including the rough and green neck area.

In principle, the golfer, when lifting the ball, must mark its original position. When rebooking, the new location must be in the designated area, not closer to the hole than the old one. The difference between the front and back positions can be within 15 cm, equal to the length of the scoreboard, the same length of the handle, or even further if the area is too bad.

But golfers need to “join custom” to avoid falsely fined because of the applicable conditions and the way “lift-and-place” depends on the local law established by the arbitration council. This is the case of Ryuji Imada – a PGA Tour competitor at the Star Trophy in Mission Hills, China in 2011.

At that time, Imada thought he had the right to drop the ball within the range of one handle compared to the beginning as in the American arena. However, local law requires the length of a transcript. Prior to signing the performance confirmation, Imada reported to the Organizer and fined a total of 26 and six strokes for 13 times using “preferred lies”. Therefore, from a score of -2 (71 strokes) on par73, the official score gives him +24 (97 strokes).

Quoc Huy synthetic