Not Something You See Every Day – Tiger Woods’ Ball Ended Up in a Garbage Bag

For Tiger Woods, this past weekend was one of his busiest, as he hosted the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club but also was a participant in the event. Tiger was able to make the cut and play into the weekend but that was about the only positive for him as two terrible showings on Saturday and Sunday ended up putting him in last place among those who made the cut.

And some would say his whole weekend was summed up by one shot…

You might have missed it since Woods wasn’t anywhere near the top of the leaderboard on Sunday but if you happened to notice, he had a very unique situation happen to him on the 12th hole. After hitting his tee shot, Woods came upon the spot where he thought his ball had landed and came to discover that the ball actually ended up in a trash bag that was placed along the hole.

This being an official event, one might ask what do you do? Do you play it as it lies or not?

Real common man golf here from @TigerWoods. Just fishing for his ball in the trash. Salt of the earth type stuff (Via @turko816/IG) pic.twitter.com/EWx25IoMSJ

— Fore Play (@ForePlayPod) February 17, 2020

The answer to that question is actually laid out by rule 16.1 b, which states “If your ball is in the general area and there is interference by an abnormal course condition on the course, you may take free relief by dropping the original ball or another ball.” Since the trash bag is considered an abnormal course condition, Tiger was allowed a free drop and able to move on with his day. Still, that’s a pretty disgusting ball to keep playing with.

The crazy part is that this isn’t even the first time something this strange has happened in a pro event. Angel Cabrera had the exact same thing happen to him at the 2000 U.S. Open when his ball landed inside a trash can at Pebble Beach. Ironically, both of these guys have won majors so maybe it’s a good omen to find the trash with your tee shot? Or maybe it’s just dirty luck.

Regardless, that was the only exciting thing to happen to Woods this week as he is now 0-14 since becoming the host of the event. But hopefully for Tiger, he’ll have some better luck in some upcoming events and he’ll be able to use some cleaner balls once the bigger events start hitting the schedule.