Padraig Harrington may not welcome the news but the Royal and Ancient Club have agreed with the United States Golf Association to announce a new interpretation of the law that saw the Irishman disqualified from the Abu Dhabi Championship in January.
Harrington signed his scorecard with a 65 in the first round at the Abu Dhabi golf club.
A television viewer subsequently emailed the European PGA Tour after noticing that Harrington’s ball had crept forward as he replaced it on the seventh green.
The action was in contravention of rule 6-6d, which requires a two-stroke penalty to be applied to the offender.
Under the revised interpretation, which is effective as of today in the Masters, and at the discretion of both committees, the player in question will still receive the penalty for transgressing the rule, but will not be disqualified.
Advertisement
In direct reference to Harrington’s case, the new interpretation applies in limited circumstances not previously contemplated where disqualifications have been caused by scorecard errors identified as the result of recent advances in video technology.
“For some time we have been concerned that, in certain limited circumstances, disproportionate disqualification penalties have been required by the rules,” Peter Dawson, R&A chief executive, said:
“This carefully considered decision reflects our desire to ensure that the rules of golf remain fair and relevant in the changing environment in which the game is played today.”
The new ruling falls in line to the suggestions made by Graeme McDowell, who narrowly avoided a similar punishment for touching his ball as he addressed the 18th hole on the same day as Harrington’s faux pas.
“At some point common sense has got to take over,” McDowell said. “Why not just impose the two-shot penalty?”
Advertisement
Harrington was infamously disqualified from the Open at the Belfry in 2000, having lead the field by five shots. Harrington lead going into the final round but forgot to sign his scorecard on the Thursday.