Minjee Lee hits her tee shot final Friday on the eleventh gap on the Pelican Golf Membership.
Getty Photographs
The golf club-turned-training assist was seemingly efficient for Minjee Lee.
But it surely was nonetheless a golf membership.
And since it was, it led to a guidelines violation throughout Saturday’s third spherical of the Annika match, with the information first reported by Goflweek’s Beth Ann Nichols (whose story you may learn in full right here.). Lee, a two-time main winner and 10-time winner general, had included the membership in her bag whereas taking part in the first gap at Pelican Golf Membership — and its inclusion gave her another membership than the 14 permitted below the principles, resulting in a two-shot penalty for the outlet.
Notably, the infraction was simply two photographs. In line with Nichols’ story, Lee found the membership earlier than teeing off on the 2nd gap and she or he prevented a further penalty — although the utmost photographs a participant could be penalized below the rule is 4. (Extra-club use is spelled out below Rule 4.1b (1) and the penalty is described in Rule 4.1b (4).)
From there, Lee performed three-under golf over her remaining 17 holes, ending with a one-under 69, and Sunday, she shot a 70. This week, Lee’s among the many 60 who will play within the CME Group Tour Championship, the LPGA’s season-ending occasion.
Has the infraction occurred earlier than? Sure, professionals sometimes embody additional golf equipment of their bag, although it’s seemingly uncommon that one has been used simply as a swing assist.
The final well-circulated instance of the extra-club violation got here when PGA Tour professional Joel Dahmen performed with an additional 4-iron through the first three holes of the Shriners Kids’s Open first spherical. After the spherical, the favored described the incident this fashion:
“Bizarr-o. By no means occurred to me earlier than. I journey with 15, 16 golf equipment. I believe most individuals out right here do relying on situations and programs.
“You recognize, been touring out right here for a very long time and by no means occurred earlier than. I’d wish to blame Geno [his caddie, Geno Bonnalie]. That might be the straightforward factor to do. It’s not his fault, both. I performed Tuesday and Wednesday out right here. We didn’t see it in there. It was an additional 4-iron, so I had two 4-irons within the bag.
“Why, I don’t know. I don’t know the way it bought there. It sucks. It sucks on the spot I’m in as effectively. Yeah, we bought to 4 tee and I grabbed a water and I walked over to my bag and I noticed a 4-iron that was within the flawed spot and our stuff is all the time in the precise spot. It wasn’t in the precise spot.
“You recognize, you simply need to get so mad and also you need to get mad at every little thing. On the identical time, simply bought to maintain taking part in golf, and I didn’t do a fantastic job of that afterwards.
“It’s powerful to refocus. Shot one-over in the event you take the penalties away, which isn’t superb out right here at this time. Irritating, disappointing, however in the event you play golf lengthy sufficient bizarre stuff will occur out right here.”
Editor’s be aware: To learn the whole story by Golfweek’s Nichols, please click on right here.