Haru Ihoi came off the 18th hole at Nam Seoul Country Club thinking he was in a playoff.
A few minutes later, he walked away with a two-shot lead.
What happened may be one of the more promiscuous rules penalty sequences you’ll hear about. At South Korea’s GS Caltex Maegyong Open Golf Championship, an event co-sponsored by the Asian Tour and the Korean Tour, Huo received a two-stroke penalty after Sunday’s final round for his spur-of-the-moment actions that occurred the day before, and the violation dropped him from tied for first to tied for third, according to the Asian Tour.
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This incident is further reported by Tom Hobbs. flushing it X account (story here), Ryan French Monday Q information Website (article here) and Josh Ball of the South China Morning Post (article here), and here’s where you should read those articles. Below is some of what they reported.
– That moment came during Saturday’s third round on the par-4 seventh hole in South Seoul. So Huh hit his tee shot to the right, potentially going out. He then took a tentative shot, but Hobbs reported that it stopped in the fairway.
– A spotter spots the first ball and picks it up, believing it to be out of bounds.
– Mr Hobbs and Mr French said members of Mr Herr’s gallery believed the ball was in play. Things got heated. According to French’s article, Xu’s gallery believed his playing partner’s caddy had picked up the ball. An official was called.
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– After lengthy discussions, officials decided that the ball hit by Huh as a provisional can be treated as if it were the original ball. Then his next shot will be his second. He finished the hole with a par.
– In Hobbs’ account, one player says this about what happened: “Fuck you. He basically took a mulligan.”
– Then Sunday’s final round began, with Hsu starting in a tie for 11th place. He then shot a 64, the lowest round of the day, and Heo, Min-hyuk Sung, and Ming-gyu Cho all tied for first place.
– Before the playoffs, officials decided to retroactively penalize Huh for two shots. From then on, Huh missed the playoffs and Son won.
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Hobbs’ story included a statement from Ho’s wife and an email sent to players by the Asian Tour explaining what happened. They are below.
Statement from Mr. Xu’s wife:
Email from Asian Tour:
Editor’s Note: Click here to read the full Asia Tour. here. Click to read Hobbes’ story here. Click to read the Frenchman’s story here. Click to read Ball’s story here.
The post Wild and Retroactive Rule Penalties Invoked. And the pros were denied the playoffs, appearing first in golf.
