Roundup: This Special API Week Edition Of Not Playing It As It Lies
/This week in the PGA Tour’s assault on play it as it lies was busier than most!
We start in reverse order with round three of the 2021 Arnold Palmer Invitational where preferred lies (lift, clean, place) were invoked due to “anticipated wet conditions.”
The same golf course that was turning crispy Friday afternoon is apparently going to require preferred lies Saturday afternoon. The forecast does call for rain but as of 1:05 pm ET the drops had not fallen.**
A similar precog approach happened at Pebble Beach earlier this year. The AT&T is spread over two courses and equity was the goal for players spread between Spyglass and Pebble over the opening two rounds.
But the API is played at just one golf course, the conditioning has been raved about and did I mention rain had not fallen yet?
Next in assaulting the original founding principle of the rules, we go back to the API’s round one where Patrick Reed demonstrated he’s learned absolutely nothing from Torrey Pines earlier this year.
As this clip shows, he continues to spend an inordinate amount of time touching everything around his ball:
And last but potentially least, I’ve got this unidentified player below at 17-18 taps in his line. Could be 16. You get the idea.
While technically this is allowed under the rules, it’s a rather blatant example of bending the spirit of the rules. As many warned when the USGA/R&A softened standards on spike mark tapping, this kind of thing would eventually happen.
But this is also a reminder for those who care: the rule change was made in the name of repairing “damage”. How long before a player brings out their beloved (smooth) foam roller to ensure they have no “damage” to contend with?
**Other than a few drops and brief shower, the rain never came.
But the Tweets were fun.
