Video: Graeme's Hole-Out, Just Before His Latest Run-In With The Rules Of Golf

In a situation somewhat similar to his last rules violation and adding to a growing list of odd mishaps for one of the game's brightest players, Graeme McDowell was fresh off a holed out approach eagle when he grazed a leaf in a hazard.

Brian Keogh explains and McDowell was his usual candid self.

GRAEME McDOWELL:  Getting into the bunker, my caddie said to me, “You know you can’t touch that branch, right?”  I thought he meant of course I can’t remove that branch.  I just didn’t give it enough respect, and the second that I grazed it, we both knew perhaps we might be in trouble.  It was just kind of one of those moments where I’ve never seen that scenario before.  It’s a tough lesson.”

That a top professional could be caught out by the rules in this way is surprising, especially when every shot is so precious and you have just followed a missed cut with a share of 74th in the first two playoff events.

“It’s a self-policing game but it hurts sometimes,” McDowell said ruefully in a television interview.

In fairness to the world No 15, he took his punishment on the chin, just as he did in Wentworth this year, or in last year’s WGC-Cadillac Championship at Doral or the 2010 Honda Classic, to name but three.

At Doral and the Honda Classic he called the penalties on himself.

I think a rules seminar is in the offing this winter!

On a more positive note, his holed-out approach at the 8th: