Scottie Scheffler said after Thursday’s round, in relation to the field playing the ball down at Quail Hollow, that he didn’t like how a player could be punished (with a mud ball) after hitting the middle of the fairway.
Shane Lowry found more than a little mud on the eighth hole Friday at the PGA Championship. And he more than expressed his frustration.
Lowry’s tee shot on the par-4 landed in the fairway but finished in a pitch mark. Had it been Lowry’s pitch mark or had they been playing preferred lies, he could have cleaned and replaced his ball. But officials deemed it wasn’t his mark and the fellas are playing it as it lies.
Lowry tried to hack out of his unfortunate predicament but his ball traveled only 90 feet and into the greenside bunker. Immediately after contact, the Irishman slammed his wedge into the offending divot, causing a huge chuck of turf to unearth. He made bogey from there, flipping the bird (at his ball, the hole, just golf in general?) after his par effort died short.
Lowry dropped to 2 over par, one off the projected cut line.
