No, it wasn’t a shot-tracking mistake.
Matt Baldwin, a 38-year-old Englishman who performs on the DP World Tour, actually did hit an 8-yard drive on Thursday on the Betfred British Masters.
Let him clarify, although.
The weird tee shot occurred on The Belfry’s 438-yard, par-4 fourth gap, which includes a again tee that’s principally surrounded by water. Baldwin was 1 below by his first three holes when one thing unusual occurred as he started to swing his driver.
“Received to the highest of my backswing,” Baldwin instructed DPWT social on Friday, “felt like just a little little bit of a crack perhaps within the glue or within the head, so tried to cease, momentum carried me on and simply clipped the ball that a lot right here (inside heel of the clubface), and it went by my legs and almost into the water hazard down behind me.”
Baldwin added that his first response was to chuckle as a result of he assumed that as a result of he tried to cease his swing, he’d be capable of re-tee with out penalty.
“But it surely seems,” Baldwin mentioned, “as a result of I made contact with the ball, it was truly a shot and I needed to play my subsequent one from a yard in entrance of the tee marker, from the tough.”
There are only some situations during which the Guidelines of Golf enable a stroke to be discarded: if a participant begins his swing however then both stops it or purposely misses the ball on the follow-through, or if a participant by accident makes contact with the ball throughout a follow swing (a la Zach Johnson on the Masters) or whereas getting ready for the shot.
So, Baldwin was out of luck. With 445 yards nonetheless to the opening, he hit 4-hybrid 180 yards with this second shot after which failed to achieve the inexperienced with a 6-iron. He recovered properly from there, although, pitching on to 10 toes and sinking the putt.
“Straightforward bogey,” mentioned Baldwin, who after rounds of 72-68 sits T-14 on the leaderboard by 36 holes.