2 Rules Official, Rickie Fowler argues about relief. But Fowler has epic last word

He just debated with a rule official about whether he could hit the ball, and now the second time is on the way. But, as he waited, Fowler wanted to know:

Is PGA Tour style stroke?

Never hurts to ask. At the least, it brought level to a scene on Thursday to the right of Colonial Country Club’s 14th hole. In the first round of Charles Schwab’s challenge, Fowler’s tee passed by a bunch of trees and finished about an inch on the left of the border fence, resulting in:

– A discussion with Pete Dachisen, the first rule officer, PGA Tour Live Mics. About one yard to the left of the ball is a muddy cart path, and Fowler said he would stand at the address, meaning he would receive no fines. He also said he would shoot no matter what the rules helped. But Dutchson believes the play is unreasonable, which means Fowler won’t fall, given the lies. That led to:

– Talk to Robby Ware, the second rule official. Dachisen called his second opinion. Ware squatted on the ball and also thought the fence might run down under Fowler’s ball, which made the shot even more difficult. At this point, Fowler’s caddie Ricky Romano said: “I mean, if you’re going to hit it, you should get relief because you’re standing on it.

“If the path is not here and you don’t stand on the road, will you shoot?” Weir said: “

“I’m going now just because other options are not good,” Fowler said.

“Well, another option obviously you can play a selection on the path that doesn’t play. This is one of your other options. The question is whether this is a reasonable shot if you’re not standing on the cart path.”

“Well, there’s really no other option,” Fowler said.

“There is but not a free relief option,” Weill said.

– Fowler hits. The officials thought the play was unreasonable, leaving him the choice of hitting his ball as is, or taking an unplayable drop. He went with the former.

“Amazing shots,” said the PGA Tour Live announcer.

Later on the radio, this time TV rules and video director Rich Pierson explains what happened in this way:

“His ball was up against the fence, which is an out-of-bounds fence. And the first rules official, Pete Dachisen, thought it was unreasonable for him to play the shot, because he was looking to get relief from the cart path. And obviously you can’t save out of bounds; his relief would have been to the left side of that path. So Pete thought it was unreasonable for Rickie to play that shot that way. So he asked for a second opinion. Robby Ware came If you see the same situation, if Rickie is not here, you will type this photo.

One announcer responded, “That’s where I was confused. There was no recourse, the shooting was made, but they said, OK, you’ll do it, and then he did it.”

“This is correct, but it was unreasonable for him to get relief because of that shooting,” Pearson said.

There is one more thing to pay attention to here.

As Fowler heads towards the ball after the fence shot, he yells:

“I didn’t touch the fence.”