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Bad advice Faldo disqualified from Players for rule infraction
Posted: Tuesday March 30, 1999 01:19 PM
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- Nick Faldo was enduring a dismal week. Thanks to Corey Pavin, he got the agony over with early Sunday. The struggling Faldo was disqualified from the final round of The Players Championship because of a rule mixup that occurred after he hit a ball into a palm tree at the sixth hole. Faldo began walking back to hit another ball from the previous spot when his playing partner, Pavin, told him he could drop from under the tree for a one-stroke penalty. "Corey talked him into a bad ruling," rules official Jon Brendle said. "We both saw it go in," Pavin said. "This happened to me two weeks ago, so I know it's right." It was wrong. Faldo exited the tournament having shot 16-over-par for 59 holes. The infraction was Rule 20-7b -- playing from the wrong place. After Faldo and Pavin played out the hole, a spectator told the rules committee what had happened. Brendle asked Faldo at the seventh green whether he had been able to identify the ball in the tree, and Faldo said no. Because the sixth hole had been completed, there was no alternative for Faldo but disqualification. "It just adds to the frivolity," Faldo said. After completing his round at 2-over 74, 16-over for the tournament, Pavin said he encountered a similar situation about eight years ago at a tournament in Palm Springs, Calif. "I'm not a betting man, but I would have bet a lot that that was the ruling," Pavin said. "It was just unfortunate." He said he had seen a similar ruling involving Jose Maria Olazabal here a few years ago. That, plus his own experience, made him sure he was dispensing the correct advice. The ball is considered lost unless it can be identified. Brendle said the rules committee would have accepted efforts to identify the ball such as using binoculars, even a spectator's word that it was Faldo's ball that went into the tree. None of those efforts was used, however, and Faldo played out the hole without asking for help from a rules official. Faldo, who hasn't won in two years, shot an 83 Saturday, matching his worst round ever in the United States. He was at 3-over through five holes of Sunday's round before the disqualification. He will still get $9,100 in unofficial money. Pavin said the parting with Faldo was amicable. "It was ... just a mistake," Pavin said. "He wasn't playing well, I wasn't playing well. I'm not sure he was that upset to walk in anyway. I'm probably more stressed about it than he is, because I'm the one who said something."
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