WGC EMC WORLD CUP

November 15, 2001

Mike Shea

Andy Yamanaka

MIKE SHEA: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you. From the English speaking people that are here, we have a local rule on the sheet this week, and I'll quote that says, "Practice between holes. Players shall not play a practice stroke on or near the putting green on the hole last played. We highlighted it on the local rule sheet so everyone would be aware of it when they got to the tee. I was called out for a ruling on the 10th hole with the Australian team. I gave the ruling to Adam Scott, and as I was leaving the green his partner Mr. Baddeley asked me about a situation that took place on the first hole. What happened on No. 1 was that Adam Scott holed out for a birdie, I believe it was. Aaron Baddeley putted his putt, which he was entitled to do, and then, he tried -- he missed that putt and he tried it over again. So that became a practice stroke. It was not a stroke in completion of the hole; it became a practice stroke. So the way this rule works is that the player is penalized the next hole because this has happened between the play of the two holes. So the penalty is applied to the next hole. In the Australia case, on the second hole, Aaron Baddeley made a birdie 3, and his partner, Mr. Scott, had hit ball up and was putting for a birdie from about two or three feet. And once Baddeley holed out, he just picked his ball up. So they didn't have a score, other than the ball that Mr. Baddeley actually putted in with his 3, but, because of the penalty, that 3 then becomes a 5. In the David Duval/Tiger Woods case, David Duval took a practice stroke on the 16th hole after Tiger had holed out. And I think David was probably putting for birdie and missed his birdie putt and he tried it over again, which the same as the Baddeley case, he is now penalized for two strokes on his play of the 17th hole. We in the rules committee were a little fortunate in this case because we got word of this happening as they were starting to play the 17th hole. So, we made sure that a rules official got to the 17th green to question the players before they took any further actions. Mr. John Paramor arrived at the green after Tiger Woods had played his chip shot onto the green and was just, getting ready, evidently, to pick up his ball, but he was able to stop him from taking any further action. Tiger then marked his ball properly. Mr. Paramor explained the rule to him, how David is not actually putting for a 2; he was actually putting for a 4. "You know, you can help your team if you happen to make 3 on this hole." So that's basically what happened. Tiger holed out in three strokes. David Duval was penalized two for the practice stroke on hole No. 16. He putted his ball in, completed the play of the hole which ended up being a 4 for the hole, and they choose the lowest ball, the 3 that Tiger Woods scored. In closing, I would like to say, ladies and gentlemen, that this speaks very highly for the professionals that play the game. Both teams, Australia and the American team accepted the penalty, realized the integrity of the rules of the game and handled it a fairly difficult situation very nicely, and it speaks highly for the people that we have representing all of these countries playing the game.

MIKE SHEA: This rule is used on all tours every week that we play. So it's nothing new. This is a rule of golf that each tour around the world uses in any stroke-play event.

MIKE SHEA: We didn't have to. We put it as a note on the sheet because it's a little different game. It's a team game this week, but it's still a stroke-play event.