Rare rules incident burns Justin Rose at Sentry — as does miscommunication

Justin Rose, a major winner and pro for just over a quarter of a century, couldn’t remember the last time it had happened to him. Maybe it never had. He called it interesting.  

And in another response, he posted a laughing emoji. Because sometimes that’s all you can do, and sometimes that’s the best medicine.   

After all, a rare rules sequence cost him two strokes on Thursday. 

And it came after miscommunication with a playing partner. 

To begin here, Rose is playing this week at the Sentry, the PGA Tour’s kickoff reserved for various high finishers from a year ago, and the 43-year-old Englishman cemented his spot with a win last February at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. That victory also started a bit of a rebirth for Rose, who played on the winning European Ryder Cup team, and on Thursday, the former world No. 1 was one-over through six holes at the Plantation Course at Kapalua.

Here’s where things got funky. 

On the 537-yard, par-4 7th, Rose and playing partners Taylor Moore and Andrew Putnam each teed off, and all three balls finished similarly — according to the PGA Tour’s online leaderboard, Rose’s went 359 yards and ended up on the right side of the fairway; Moore’s also finished on the fairway’s right side but measured at 322 yards; while Putnam hit a 331-yard drive to the center of the fairway. The players moved on. 

What followed was shared on Golf Channel’s broadcast of the second round. 

Rose, from the right-center of the fairway, hit, and his ball dropped on the green. Cameras, though, showed him with his hands over his head — and Moore turned back toward him. There was a problem. 

Rose had hit Moore’s ball. 

But how? 

Telling was the following exchange between Rose and Moore, which Golf Channel mics picked up. 

Rose told Moore he had hit a ball with a 2 on it. He’d been playing a 2. 

But Moore said the ball he was standing over was also a 2. Here, it came out that Moore had switched to a 2 — and had not told Rose.   

“Sorry, dude,” Moore said. “I — wow.”

He then called for a rules official. They had to sort through these questions:

— What was the call on Rose?

Two-stroke penalty, though it could have been worse. 

Rose violated Rule 6.3c (1), which reads this way:

“In stroke play, the player gets the general penalty (two penalty strokes) and must correct the mistake by continuing play with the original ball by playing it as it lies or taking relief under the Rules: The stroke made with the wrong ball and any more strokes before the mistake is corrected (including strokes made and any penalty strokes solely from playing that ball) do not count. If the player does not correct the mistake before making a stroke to begin another hole or, for the final hole of the round, before returning his or her scorecard, the player is disqualified.”

In Rose’s case, with the infraction being discovered almost immediately, he took the two-stroke penalty and finished the hole with a double-bogey six — and he wasn’t DQ’d. Rose finished the first round with a two-under 71, and he shot a four-under 69 on Friday during the second round.   

Notably, the rules breach happens, though it’s rare, with the last known occurrence happening to Mackenzie Hughes last year at the Farmers Insurance Open. In that case, Hughes, too, took a two-shot penalty — and it played a part in him missing the weekend cut. 

— What was the call on Moore?

No penalty. 

But how he proceeded after Rose hit his ball is covered under Rule 6.3c (2), which reads this way:

“If it is known or virtually certain that the player’s ball was played by another player as a wrong ball, the player must replace the original ball or another ball on the original spot (which if not known must be estimated) (see Rule 14.2). This applies whether or not the original ball has been found.”

On the Golf Channel broadcast, rules official Mark Dusbabek added this:

“Very unfortunate situation. Justin Rose had to take a two-stroke penalty Getting the ball back into play for Taylor is the issue. The lie was altered once he played that shot. So Taylor is allowed to have a clean lie like he normally would’ve had there and was able to place his ball in the nearest, most similar lie.”

— Should Moore have told his playing partners he was switching his ball?

Let’s answer that with another question:

Would all of this have been avoided had Moore said something?

Perhaps. 

On the Golf Channel broadcast, analyst and former player Curt Byrum said this:

“Well, typically you don’t have to tell your fellow player that you’re changing to a new number or a new ball, but it’s usually a courtesy thing that you say, ‘Hey, I’m going to a 2.’ And he didn’t do that on the 7th tee. So when Rose got down there, he saw whatever ball he’s playing — No. 2, which he had been playing — and he just assumed it was his and he went over and he got over it and he hit it. Unfortunately, it was going to be a penalty on Rose, but just a courtesy on Taylor’s part to let him know he was switching to a different number.”

One more question then:

How did Rose react? 

He took it in stride, at least on social media. 

Ahead of the footage shown on Friday on Golf Channel, details of the incident were few. The sequence wasn’t originally broadcast, and the Tour’s online leaderboard noted it as just “shot 3 penalty” — which could have meant several things. Rose also wasn’t interviewed by reporters on site after his round.

But hours later, he shared this on the site formerly known as Twitter:

“First day back at work after the festive period was interesting @TheSentry I hit the wrong ball on the 7th!!

Over the next few minutes, Rose then liked 17 messages on the thread and responded to these two: 

— “Justin play a yellow ball mate lol” — which drew a a laughing emoji; 

— “When’s the last time that’s happened to you Rose?” — which drew a shrug emoji. 

He then logged off. 

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Nick Piastowski

Golf.com Editor

Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for editing, writing and developing stories across the golf space. And when he’s not writing about ways to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short, and drinking a cold beer to wash away his score. You can reach out to him about any of these topics — his stories, his game or his beers — at nick.piastowski@golf.com.