What’s in a little bit tattoo, ay?
Properly, there is perhaps a two-stroke penalty in it, if you happen to’re in the course of a global golf competitors.
That’s what it value Sam Bennett — form of — because the Texas A&M senior performed the primary gap of his ultimate spherical Saturday within the Spirit Worldwide at Whispering Pines Golf Membership in Trinity, Tex. Representing Staff USA, Bennett reached in his bag, looking for his 60-degree wedge. And when he did, he discovered greater than for which he bargained, i.e. a 58-degree wedge that didn’t belong to him.
Oops!
How did it get there? The offending wedge belonged to teammate Rachel Heck, who had set the membership down by the bag, whereas she was making use of face tattoos of the American flag to Bennett and teammate James Piot. The membership was inadvertently positioned in Bennett’s bag because the gamers dispersed.
The additional wedge represented a fifteenth membership in Bennett’s bag, and that’s bother … bother with a “T” and that rhymes with “P” and that stands for “penalty,” beneath Rule 4.1b.
Bennett was tattooed with a two-stroke comeuppance for the violation and as an alternative of leaving gap No. 1 with a par-4, he incurred a double-bogey-6. Because it turned out, all was properly that began badly for Bennett. The No. 6 ranked beginner within the World Newbie Golf Rankings responded with seven birdies over his subsequent 14 holes and carded a final-round 3-under-par 69 to seize the boys’s particular person title.
Bennett’s 6-under par (73-68-69-210) whole edged Boise State senior Large Townsend, representing Sweden, by two photographs. “I advised myself (to) keep affected person, and simply get to even par via 5 as a result of you could have two par fives on that stretch and I used to be ready to try this,” Bennett told Amateurgolf.com. “After which I used to be off and operating.”
Whereas the penalty didn’t cease Bennett, it was pricey from a group standpoint. Sweden wound up capturing the boys’s group title at 3-under par, one stroke higher than Staff USA. Take away the wayward wedge and the penalty on Bennett, the USA finishes 4-under, as an alternative of 2-under, and wins the group class, as properly. That stated, the USA captured 4 of the 5 gold medals.
Oddly sufficient, girls’s particular person winner Rose Zhang additionally had a problem with a wedge in her ultimate spherical — that’s, she didn’t have one. On the primary tee, Zhang found she had left her pitching wedge on the apply inexperienced. However, after a frantic scramble, the lacking membership was retrieved. There isn’t a penalty for including a membership throughout a spherical, inside the 14-club restrict.
Zhang went on to shoot a final-round 69, the one participant within the area to have three rounds within the 60s. The USA captured the ladies’s total title with a rating of 12-under, and gained the general group title with a dominating cumulative rating of 28-under. Canada was second, 21 photographs behind.
To place it one other means, It will have taken 10 extra too-many-clubs-in-the-bag penalties for Staff USA to relinquish the lead. That’s lots of tattoos.
