A Confusing Interaction With a Walking Official Cost Harold Varner III Two Strokes

The new rules of golf appear to have reared their ugly head again this week as another situation has sparked more controversy around the PGA TOUR. And this time, it threatened to severely impact a player’s status in a tournament.

Most of the rules violations that we have seen this year haven’t cost anyone a chance to win a tournament or had a major impact on a player’s tournament but that wasn’t the case for Harold Varner III at THE PLAYERS Championship.

Mid-way through his round Varner was teetering right on the cut line Friday at one of the biggest tournaments of the year and it was all because of a two-stroke penalty.

The situation Varner stumbled upon was an unlikely one that started at the driving range at TPC Sawgrass. At the range, Varner cracked his driver’s head and informed rules officials that he would be the club in his bag until a new head could be put on his shaft. This is allowable under the rules but the problem evidently was that Varner planned on screwing the new driver head onto the old shaft, which would be a violation under Rule 4.

Harold Varner III of the United States plays his shot from the ninth…

Harold Varner III of the United States plays his shot from the ninth tee during the second round of The PLAYERS Championship on The Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass on March 15, 2019 in Ponte Vedra… Get premium, high resolution news photos at Getty Images

Rule 4 states that golfers are not allowed to make adjustments to any equipment during a round and that is exactly what Varner would have been doing if he screwed in a new driver head. So Varner left the old driver shaft on the 11th tee box so a driver head could be put on and he could pick up the new club at the end of his round. That’s where the walking official comes in.

The official that was walking with the group noticed the driver shaft on the ground and returned it to Varner and his caddie. Believing that this meant they were in the clear to use it, they took off the driver head from his new driver and screwed it into the old shaft, a direct violation of Rule 4. Once the other officials got word of this, Varner was assessed a two-stroke penalty.

Shortly thereafter the golf world took to Twitter to once again express their displeasure with the confusing nature of golf’s rules:

Bc a walking scorer carried his golf shaft out to him, rather than it going to his agent in the locker room to build the club, he gets assessed a 2 stroke penalty? The @USGA stupid, and this rules official chose not to apply basic logic to the situation https://t.co/EKS7Zg621x

— Morgan Rubes (@morganArseCan) March 15, 2019

Another week, more rules: Harold Varner hit with two-stroke penalty. Driver had crack in it, went to replace it but walking scorer was carrying shaft, his agent the clubhead and … oh I give up see below for the rule he violated pic.twitter.com/9zPjoJzzoP

— Brian Wacker (@brianwacker1) March 14, 2019

While this isn’t a new rule, it shows exactly how the rules, in general, have been a struggle to grasp this year, especially when a rules official is contributing to violations.

With THE PLAYERS cut line falling at even par, Varner’s score of +6 means that even without the penalty he still would not have made it to Saturday’s rounds. Regardless, the whole mix-up was still not a good look for the rules of golf, especially given all of the bad press the rules have been getting thus far this season.

Cover Photo via Instagram