How many times has this happened to you? You hit your golf ball and it disappears into a stand of trees, never to be seen again. After his adventure at Saturday’s Honda Classic, PGA Tour and New England golfer Jerry Kelly has a hint: Look skyward.
That’s how Kelly, who was five shots off Rory Sabbatini’s lead entering Sunday play at PGA National, found his Srixon Z-Star after knocking it into a coconut palm tree on the sixth hole during Saturday’s third round. You likely won’t have the outside help that Kelly had, who avoided a lost-ball penalty when PGA Tour officials pressed Palm Beach Post photographer Allen Eyestone into service to help identify a white sphere stuck 30 feet up in the tree, according to the Post.
At the suggestion of rules officials, Eyestone used a zoom lens to take a photo of a ball. The authorities studied the image on the camera’s screen, and 10 minutes later, decided to charge Kelly with an unplayable lie rather than a lost ball.
Kelly marks his ball with a green line and the photo showed such an identifier, which was good enough for the officials. Kelly took a drop and and a one-stroke penalty, made bogey, and finished the day at 2-under 68.
Did the University of Hartford grad get away with one out there under the palm fronds? Kelly said later he could not see the green line with binoculars, and the officials’ ruling was apparently not unanimous, according to the Post. Should the rules guys have assessed Kelly stroke and distance that comes with a lost ball?
The view from here is that if the PGA Tour is going to base rulings on calls from TV viewers, why not take advantage of the technology at hand? But the edict could have gone either way, and Kelly’s fortunate to be in the final group with Sabbatini and Y.E. Yang Sunday.
Wonder how Sabbatini will feel about the shutterbug ruling if Kelly ends up surpassing him? The Wisconsin native outlasted Sabbatini back in 2009 at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, Kelly’s last tourney win.
“Coming out of there with a bogey with a penalty stroke, it felt awfully good,” Kelly told reporters of the judgment at the sixth hole. “Even though it was a bogey, it was a damn good bogey and you can take something out of that.”
As for the 10 minutes it took Kelly to look for his ball, the notoriously impatient Sabbatini complained to officials about the delay, especially after the twosome in back of Kelly and in front of Sabbatini played through the slowpokes.
“It was a little bit of dazed and confused,” Sabbatini said. “We’re like, `OK, where did he come from?’ And we’re trying to figure out what’s going on.”
Sabbatini, Kelly and Yang have teed off in the last group, with each player 1-under for the day through six. Sabbatini, at 10-under for the tourney, retained his 5-shot lead over his playing partners and Gary Woodland, who was 2-under for the day and a hole ahead.
(Emily Kay is a regular contributor to New England Golf Monthly. Check her out on the Waggle Room, Boston Golf Examiner, and National Golf Examiner, and GottaGoGolf websites. You may also follow Kay on Twitter.)
