Golf Rules: Wrong drop costs Rory McIlroy two strokes

At the start of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and its proud prize money of 20 million US dollars, Rory McIlroy had to accept a severe penalty. Golf Post takes a look at the rules and reveals where you can drop the ball in the event of a relief.

Rules of golf: What did Rory McIlroy do wrong?

In Round 1 of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am 2024, Rory McIlroy’s ignorance proved to be the Northern Irishman’s undoing. In his first appearance on the PGA Tour this year, “Roars” had to accept a severe penalty after his tee shot on hole 7 of the Spyglass Hill Golf Course rushed into the botany of the par 5. The four-time major winner found his ball in the deep grass under one of the pine trees at Pebble Beach. Initially, the Northern Irishman considered hitting the ball from there before finally deciding to take relief. But when he dropped the ball, a rule change from the beginning of 2023 had consequences for the European’s scorecard.

The rules of golf on the back-on-the-line relief

McIlroy dropped the ball right of a tee, that was supposed to act as the reference line to the pin, with a clear conscience within one club length of the line. He continued his game and finished the par 5 with a bogey, but his relief to the right of the imaginary straight had an aftermath. What had been permitted since 2019 and until the beginning of 2023 has since been changed. A look at the official rules of golf provides information on the correct procedure for the drop. Rule 19.2b (relief “back on the line”) states this:

The player may drop the original ball or another ball (see Rule 14.3) behind the spot of the original ball, keeping the spot of the original ball between the hole and the spot where the ball is dropped (with no limit as to how far back the ball may be dropped). The spot on the line where the ball first touches the ground when dropped creates a relief area that is one club-length in any direction from that point, but with these limits:

Limits on Location of Relief Area:

• Must not be nearer the hole than the spot of the orignal ball, and
• May be in any area of the course, but
• Must be in the same area of the course that the ball first touched when dropped.

The penalty for a false drop

McIlroy’s mistake was to take the relief one club length to the right of the reference line. The ball is allowed to fall on the line and roll up to one club length in either direction. However, Rory took a club length off the line and dropped it into what he thought was a relief area. That was still correct in 2019, but it changed in 2023. As a result, he acted against the rules by not dropping the ball again and was penalised two strokes under Rule 14.3 (4) (“What to do if Ball Dropped in Wrong Way”):

If the player does not drop again and instead makes a stroke at the ball from where it came to rest after being dropped in a wrong way:

If the ball was played from the relief area, the player gets one penalty stroke (but has not played from a wrong place under Rule 14.7a).

But if the ball was played from outside the relief area, or after it was placed when required to be dropped (no matter where it was played from), the player gets the general penalty.

It was this general penalty (two penalty strokes in counting play) that was to be McIlroy’s undoing on the leaderboard. The 34-year-old learnt of the penalty after the end of the round, accepted the rules’ interpretation and signed his scorecard. Three strokes under par became just one stroke under par, because his single bogey turned into a triple bogey. The officials discovered the offence through the use of the video team that takes care of the reviews.

Rory McIlroy: “I wasn’t aware that that rule was changed”

Rory McIlroy analysed the offence after the round: “[U]nbeknownst to me, the rule changed in January 2023 where you used to be able to come back on-line, take a club length either side. That was changed in 2019 to be able to do that. I wasn’t aware that that rule was changed again in 2023, so I took a drop thinking of the 2019 rules when everything was sort of changed, not knowing that the rule was changed again in 2023, so got a two-stroke penalty there.”