Austin Eckroat was dealt an unfortunate penalty in the Players Championship final round after his ball hung on the side of the hole for more than ten seconds before dropping.
The American's birdie putt narrowly missed, or so he thought, at the par 5 11th before he and playing partner Joel Dahmen took a close look to see if it would drop into the bottom of the cup.
It eventually did, but not before Eckroat had waited ten seconds for it to fall. His birdie then turned into a par five.
"Since the ball took longer than 10 seconds to drop, a stroke was added to Austin Eckroat's score and was counted as a par," the PGA Tour confirmed on social media.
Eckroat isn't the first golfer to fall foul of Rule 13.3.a. The scenario has regularly occured in pro golf over the past few years and happened to Lee Hodges at the 2023 PGA Championship, Seong-Hyeon Kim at the 2021 CJ Cup and Si Woo Kim at the 2021 RBC Heritage.
There was also drama surrounding the rule at the 2021 Solheim Cup, when Madelene Sagstrom threw back Nelly Korda's ball before it had been overhanging the hole for ten seconds. The rules official deemed that it was overhanging the hole and Korda's putt was deemed to be holed.
It seems a harsh rule and fans on social media certainly thought that way in this most recent instance surround Eckroat, too. One fan wrote that the "Rules of Golf are truly bonkers", while another user said "I don't care what the rule is, this should count."
Watch Eckroat's overhanging ball rule breach:
Since the ball took longer than 10 seconds to drop, a stroke was added to Austin Eckroat's score and was counted as a par. pic.twitter.com/xwhGBzIy8zMarch 17, 2024
Rule 13.3a Explained: Waiting Time to See If Ball Overhanging Hole Will Fall into Hole
If any part of a player’s ball overhangs the lip of the hole:
- The player is allowed a reasonable time to reach the hole and ten more seconds to wait to see whether the ball will fall into the hole.
- If the ball falls into the hole in this waiting time, the player has holed out with the previous stroke.
- If the ball does not fall into the hole in this waiting time:
- The ball is treated as being at rest.
- If the ball then falls into the hole before it is played, the player has holed out with the previous stroke, but gets one penalty stroke added to the score for the hole.
