YO BRO! Daniel Berger, Viktor Hovland and Joel Dahmen Argue Over Penalty

Daniel Berger, Viktor Hovland and Joel Dahmen were paired together for the final round of THE PLAYERS Championship on Monday. When they got to the par 5 16th hole the three got into a little altercation over where Berger should drop his ball after hitting his second shot into the water to the right of the green.

Berger thought that his ball had crossed up closer to the green but both Dahmen and Hovland said that it crossed further back and further away from the green.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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If you listen closely on those videos you can hear the conversation get more and more heated.

“To be honest with you, I’m not really okay with it being up there,” said Hovland referring to where Berger wanted to drop.

“I’ve never taken a bad drop in my life and I’m not about to take a bad one here,” says Berger. “I’m gonna drop here (where Hovland and Dahmen agreed on) for the sake of you guys, but you’re wrong.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

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This is an incredibly tough conversation for these players to have. If you’re in Berger’s shoes, of course you aren’t going to want to drop further back then where you think the ball crossed. And if you’re Dahmen or Hovland, you aren’t going to allow Berger to drop somewhere that you don’t think is fair.

Both Dahmen and Berger declined to speak with the media after the round but Hovland said, “It’s not a fun conversation but when you strongly believe in something you kind of have to stand your ground. But at the end of the day, we’ve got to protect the field and protect all the other guys. It’s not a fun conversation, but when you strongly believe in something, you kind of have to stand your ground.”

Hovland also went on to describe the situation and how it played out in his perspective.

He said, “so obviously I was in kind of more of the left side of the fairway, Berger hitting from the right side, and Joel was kind of in the middle. But as soon as Daniel hit it in the air, he said, oh, water ball, and then I was watching the whole flight, and it was just short right of the green in the water on 16. From my perspective, obviously I was a little further left than Daniel, in my opinion I did not think the ball started very far left of the pin. It looked like it kind of started at the pin and then cut towards the end because the wind was also a little bit off the left. He obviously thought that he started it way left of the pin and then he kind of cut hard at the end, but that’s not what Joel and I saw.

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I’m not going to put words in Joel’s mouth, but he was closer to Daniel’s line, and we both saw the same thing, that it kind of started pretty close to the pin and then cut to the right at the end, therefore not really crossing all the way up there close to the green. We thought it was closer to the grass bunker there, just past it, and yeah, we had a little discussion about it.”

Berger went on to finish 2-under on the day and 6-under on the tournament which was good enough for a T13 finish.

Although I’m sure the two will say there is no beef between them, the only way we will find out is when Hovland and Berger are paired against each other in the 2023 Ryder Cup singles. That’ll be much watch TV.

Who do you think was right in this situation?

Cover Image Via Twitter