Phil Mickelson recalls the incident with great clarity.
It was 21 years ago, at the same PGA Tour venue being used this week outside San Diego, when the nuances of the relief rule were permanently etched in his brain.
He was locked in a battle at the 1993 Buick Invitational with the late Payne Stewart when the latter’s ball ended up on a Torrey Pines cart path.
Stewart took the free drop to which he was entitled, but when he hit his next shot, his heel was still on the path. Stewart incurred a crucial two-shot penalty and Mickelson cruised to victory in his hometown.
“I was kicking his butt anyway, but I clearly remember it,” Mickelson said over the weekend at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship.
Former world No 1 Rory McIlroy is learning the rule book, too. Two strokes at a time.
Last weekend, for the second time in three years, McIlroy lost the Abu Dhabi title by a stroke because he either did not know or misapplied a rule. This time, like with Stewart, he failed to take complete relief when receiving a free drop.
“That’s a pretty basic rule,” said Padraig Harrington, moments after McIlroy had been penalised following Saturday’s round.
Less routine was the Abu Dhabi violation in 2012, when playing partner Luke Donald saw McIlroy break a rule on a putting green.
Donald told McIlroy that he needed to call a referee, who ultimately added two shots to the Northern Irishman’s score.
Veterans such as Donald and Mickelson, fixtures in the world top 10 and with over 35 years of professional experience between them, should have a better understanding of the rules than McIlroy, who won his first pro title five years ago in Dubai.
Yet McIlroy’s defensive, derisive attitude after last weekend’s penalty was assessed – he claimed he knew the rule, but failed to notice he had not taken complete relief from the drop area – was not well-received.
He called the rule “stupid” and said he spends little time familiarising himself with the game’s confusing regulations. A day earlier, McIlroy said he recently finished reading autobiographies by Andre Agassi and Sir Alex Ferguson, but golf’s pocket-sized rule book has apparently never graced his nightstand.
“I guess that’s why we’ve got the referees here,” McIlroy said after the ruling. “I’ve got better things to think about.”
He will learn the rules eventually. Quite possibly, the hard way.
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