{"id":434767,"date":"2025-05-16T02:40:03","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T02:40:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/?p=434767"},"modified":"2025-05-16T02:40:03","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T02:40:03","slug":"preferred-lies-not-used-in-pga-championship-players-respond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/preferred-lies-not-used-in-pga-championship-players-respond\/","title":{"rendered":"Preferred Lies Not Used In PGA Championship, Players Respond"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the days leading up to the PGA Championship, there was a torrential rainstorm.\u00a0 This rainstorm washed away the practice rounds on Monday.\u00a0 The conditions were bad enough that there is footage of Hideki Matsuyama practicing his putt in a layer of water<\/a> where the green used to be.\u00a0 Going into this, the players expected there to be a preferred lies exception given the course conditions.\u00a0 However, that was not to be the case as the PGA made a rules announcement that preferred lies would not be in play for the PGA Championship.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why Would Preferred Lies Be Needed?<\/span><\/h2>\n

Normal rules have players play the ball where it lies.\u00a0 Preferred lies is the exception that comes into play when course conditions are not the best.\u00a0 Currently, Quail Hollow is in a condition where the exemption would apply.\u00a0 Preferred lies has been used plenty of times in PGA events in the past and is a great way to keep the game going without a hitch.\u00a0 Now, when the players found out that it would not be used during the PGA Championships<\/span><\/p>\n

Players Respond<\/span><\/h2>\n

The first round went off with several mud balls.\u00a0 Scheffler, Schauffele, and McIlroy all had to deal with mud wrecking their shots.\u00a0 Scheffler managed to hit a ball into the pond, with Schauffele not far behind.\u00a0 McIlroy was right behind both of them, while seeking another major wi<\/a>n, with all three making a double bogey on the same hole.<\/span><\/p>\n

Scheffler, in a press conference after the first round<\/a>, would blame the poor conditions on poor drainage of the course.\u00a0 Saying that the course is overseeded and it only promotes more mud balls.\u00a0 Scheffler went on to say that playing in these conditions is actively hurting his game.\u00a0 He even alluded to how the lack of preferred lies was unfair not only for him but for many other players.\u00a0 Scheffler was still proud of his performance and didn\u2019t let it bother him too much in order to keep himself composed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Schauffele On Prefered Lies<\/h2>\n

Schauffele, however, let loose on what he thinks of the lack of preferred lies.\u00a0 He started by describing how \u201cridiculous\u201d it was to try and just aim his ball only to still land in a pond.\u00a0 Schauffele then stated that other players would be much more vocal.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not the only guy.\u00a0 I\u2019m just in front of the camera.\u00a0 I wouldn\u2019t want to go in the locker room because I\u2019m sure a lot of guys aren\u2019t happywith sort of the conditions there.\u00a0 I feel like the grass is so good, there is no real advantage to cleaning your ball in the fairway.\u00a0 The course is completely tipped out.\u00a0 It sucks that you\u2019re kinda 50\/50 once you hit the fairway.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Schauffele went on to predict that as the course dries over the next few days, the mud is going to reach the \u201cperfect cake zone\u201d.\u00a0 He suspects that things will get worse for players.<\/span><\/p>\n

Should There Be Preferred Lies?<\/span><\/h2>\n

In short, there should have been a preferred lies exemption for the championship.\u00a0 The course condition is only going to get worse over the next few days.\u00a0 The top players are baring their teeth and getting through the rounds, but even they are struggling with mud balls.\u00a0 It is baffling that there was no exception made for preferred lies for the PGA Championship.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit:\u00a0 \u00a9 Aaron Doster-Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the days leading up to the PGA Championship, there was a torrential rainstorm.\u00a0 This rainstorm washed away the practice rounds on Monday.\u00a0 The conditions were bad enough that there is footage of Hideki Matsuyama practicing his putt in a layer of water where the green used to be.\u00a0 Going into this, the players expected […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5429,"featured_media":434768,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,246,19],"tags":[53],"class_list":["post-434767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-golf-news","category-pga","tag-pga-championship"],"modified_by":"Taylor Craig","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5429"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434767"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":434771,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434767\/revisions\/434771"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}