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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Tim Schmitt

Did Barstool’s Riggs make a hole-in-one at Bandon Dunes? And what’s the rule on a ball being lodged against the flagstick?

Barstool Sports’ Sam “Riggs” Bozoian missed this week’s edition of the Fore Play podcast because he was off playing Bandon Dunes.

So although he wasn’t part of the twice-weekly podcast, he lit the Twitterverse (X-verse?) ablaze on Friday when he posted that he’d just made an ace at the famous Oregon resort that houses five of the top 14 courses on the Golfweek’s Best top 100 U.S. public-access layouts list.

Via social media, Riggs said he was buying drinks for those on hand at Bandon Dunes after he posted this photo, which infers that he made an ace:

It’s tough to see in the photo if any part of the ball is below the lip of the hole. But if it’s not, rule 13.2c of the USGA Rules and Interpretations explains this scenario in detail.

13.2c. Ball Resting Against Flagstick in Hole

If your ball comes to rest against the flagstick left in the hole, and any part of your ball is in the hole below the surface of the putting green, your ball is treated as holed.

If no part of your ball is in the hole below the surface of the putting green:

Your ball is not holed and must be played as it lies.

If the flagstick is removed and your ball moves (whether it falls into the hole or moves away from the hole), there is no penalty and it must be replaced on the lip of the hole.

According to the National Hole-In-One Association, a tee shot hit by an amateur golfer on a par 3 goes into the hole one out of every 12,750 times.

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