Peculiar moments in golf are hardly unheard of, particularly when it comes to some of the unusual places a ball comes to rest.
For example, Rory McIlroy’s bizarre Australian Open week continued in the third round at Royal Melbourne, when his ball came to rest under a banana peel.
However, it isn’t just the Northern Irishman who has encountered a strange moment following a tee shot this week.
On the other side of the world, at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas, Japanese star Hideki Matsuyama also found his ball in an unusual lie during the second round.
The 2016 Hero World Challenge winner sent his tee shot at the 16th at Albany right into the native area, but when he arrived at the scene, he found his ball embedded firmly in the sand.
However, that wasn’t its position when it came to rest, and it didn’t take a genius to work out what had happened, thanks to tire tracks right where his ball had stopped, with a golf cart having run it over.
TV footage confirmed as much, with the ball's lie following the tee shot showing it clearly wasn’t plugged. Sure enough, though, only the top of the ball was visible following its unfortunate encounter with the golf cart.
During the broadcast, Smylie Kaufman joked that: “I think my buddies back home would have said play it as it lies.” However, that fate did not await Matsuyama.
Unlike McIrloy, who would have faced a penalty had he moved his ball, meaning he was forced to hack out with the banana peel wrapped around it, Matsuyama was allowed to move his ball without penalty.
That’s thanks to rule 9.6 of the Rules of Golf, Ball Lifted or Moved by Outside Influence.
It states that: “If it is known or virtually certain that an outside influence (including another player in stroke play or another ball) lifted or moved a player’s ball at rest: There is no penalty, and the ball must be replaced on its original spot (which if not known must be estimated).
As a result, Matsuyama was free to pick his ball up and reposition it before continuing his round.
He went on to make par at the hole before finishing with a six under 66 to leave him tied for the lead at 10 under with two rounds to play, along with Cameron Young, Wyndham Clark, JJ Spaun and Akshay Bhatia.
Afterwards, Matsuyama seemed confident of his chances of ending the year as it had begun, with victory.
Matsuyama claimed a three-shot victory at The Sentry in January, but has gone winless since and said: "So I've been working on everything. Looking forward to next season, so I'm looking forward to play well next two days."
The defending champion is Scottie Scheffler, who is looking for his third successive title at the Tiger Woods-hosted event. He begins the third round in a tie for sixth with Alex Noren and Sepp Straka at nine under.
