Jon Rahm wins the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open after ball marking mistake Jon Rahm has won his first European Tour event after the Irish Open at Portstewart, where he won 6 shots clear of the pack with rounds 65, 67, 67 and 65, finishing at 24 under. It was level pegging at 17 under with Daniel Im coming into the final round, but Rahm’s 150 yard Eagle on the 4th spelled out the rest of his day.
Controversy came when Rahm was 4 clear of the rest of the field down the 13th fairway, where he was queried over his ball marking on the 6th green. Rahm simply replaced his ball at a different angle on his marker than what it was picked up from. The decision came when reviewing whether or not he deliberately intended to incorrectly replace his ball. No action was taken.
This is in contrast to American Lexi Thompson, who was handed a two shot penalty for marking her ball incorrectly, and eventfully lost in a playoff at the ANA inspiration event. Since this incident, new rules have been put in place which gives players the benefit of the doubt under these circumstances.
However, the European Tour has come under criticism from American Jimmy Walker saying “@European Tour Nice enforcement of the rules of golf” and “If we don’t have rules then we have nothing”. Jimmy obviously didn’t get the memo about the recent changes.
A joint statement from the R&A and USGA said “players should not be held to the degree of precision that can sometimes be provided by video technology … so long as the player does what can reasonably be expected under the circumstances to make an accurate determination, the player’s reasonable judgement will be accepted, even if later shown to be wrong by the use of video evidenced.”
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