Tuesday evening featured a TGL double-header, with two-time champion Xander Schauffele’s New York Golf Club playing both matches. But the strangest incident came from the first match, when Schauffele was officially rewarded a mulligan.
At a critical moment in the match, a bizarre situation and a rare statement led to the Mulligan. The good news for Schauffele was that the mulligan gave him a chance to replay a terrible bunker shot. The bad news is that his mulligan also went horribly wrong and may have cost his team the game.
Here’s what you need to know.
Xander Schauffele squanders a rare opportunity for TGL Mulligan
In the first TGL match on Tuesday evening, Schauffele’s team from New York faced Bay Golf Club. Bay Golf Club got off to a good start, winning the first three holes.
But New York fought back and tied the score at 3-3 on the 11th hole.
When the match reached 13, Schauffele took on Ludvig Aberg in singles. Schauffele’s tee shot landed in a right bunker on the green, where it quickly began to go sideways.
As Schauffele prepared to hit his bunker shot, Bay Golf Club’s Wyndham Clark decided to throw down the Hammer. If New York were to accept the Hammer, the gap would be worth two points. If they rejected it, they had to forfeit the hole and give Bay Golf one point.
While Aberg sat nicely on the green, Schauffele’s teammates denied the Hammer. But it was too late. Schauffele went ahead and hit his bunker shot, but it didn’t go well at all. His ball couldn’t escape the sand.
Then a rules official stepped in to give Schauffele a replay.
After video review, the referee determined that Schauffele had already addressed his ball when the hammer was thrown. Teams may not use the hammer once an opponent has positioned themselves on the ball.
So the official ruled that the Gavel would be wiped out (as would New York’s decision to reject it). Instead of forfeiting the hole, Schauffele would get a mulligan on his bunker shot.
But Schauffele failed to escape the bunker again with his second attempt. The end result? New York lost the gap anyway.
“Yeah, it turned out terribly for us. We were going to turn it down anyway, and then I hit such a bad shot that they didn’t even have a chance to throw a hammer, so it actually turned out worse,” Schauffele explained after the round. “Maybe it would be better if I hit it a third time.”
In his own post-match press conference, Clark laid the blame on the referee.
“So Derek [Stafford]our referee, he normally puts his hand out, like there’s a signal he’s doing, and you can’t throw it anymore. I look at him, and he hadn’t done it, and he kind of nodded and said you could do it. Granted, Xander was standing over the ball. I could understand why they called it that, but at the same time the referee who was there gave us the go-ahead,” Clark argued. “It could have been very controversial.”
Stafford, the referee in question, officiated NBA games. Clark’s teammate Shane Lowry suggested that if he had made that mistake in an NBA game, things would have turned out very differently.
“If he had done that in his NBA days, I’m not sure the players would have been as nice,” Lowry said. He continued. “If we closed the hole, I would be…” before Clark interrupted him to finish his thought.
“I would have been angry,” Clark said. “Or even if we lost it. Oh my god, we might have been kicked out for charges.”
Of course, Bay Golf Club won the hole despite the Mulligan ruling. Better yet, they beat New York 5-3.
Unfortunately for New York, the second game wasn’t kind to them either. They got a 9-2 shout from Keegan Bradley’s Boston Golf Club to close out the evening’s entertainment.
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