Cooked: Double Hit Determined By A Cell Phone Video!?
/Last week at The Players the use of "sophisticated technology" prompted a rescinding of Justin Rose's two-shot penalty after officials reviewed a new USGA Decision. Sunday in the Regions Tradition another strange technology incident prompted Champions Tour rules officials to consult a volunteer's cell phone video to determine whether John Cook had double-hit a shot. At the time Cook held a one-stroke lead in the season's first of twelve senior majors (there's another next week!).
From an unbylined AP story:
Cook's ball was buried deep in the right bunker just under the lip, and appeared to ricochet backward before winding up a couple of feet out of the sand.
Tour officials reviewed the bunker shot using phone video shot by an event staffer and determined that Cook hit it again.
''Golf Channel didn't have a great view of it but there was someone with the event who was shooting social media video of it that had a face-on angle, and it was clear that he double-hit it,'' said Brian Claar, the
Solomon Crenshaw featured this quote from Cook:
"I was just trying to chip it out of the bunker and get the next one on the green and make a 5, maybe have a putt at a 4," Cook said. "Things just started to spiral sideways. It's one of those things.
"I told Tom, my caddie, you'd better move the bag because if this ball hits the lip, it could go anywhere," the golfer said. "That's what I thought it did, it flipped behind me. I didn't hear anything. All I felt was my club hitting the lip of the bunker and he sand catching the club. Evidently in all that it hit my clubhead."
Cook was assessed a penalty for the double hit and thus found himself two shots off the pace. He said he was still somewhat shaken by that turn of events and bogeyed 16 to fall out of the top five.
Cook's post round interview from AL.com: