{"id":434943,"date":"2025-05-28T03:06:52","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T03:06:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/?p=434943"},"modified":"2025-05-28T03:06:52","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T03:06:52","slug":"ben-griffin-criticized-for-free-relief-drop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/ben-griffin-criticized-for-free-relief-drop\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Griffin Criticized For Free Relief Drop"},"content":{"rendered":"

During the Charles Schwab Challenge, golfer Ben Griffin managed to win the event<\/a> and bring home the trophy and glory.\u00a0 It is a story that doesn\u2019t have many surprises; the only real surprise was Scottie Scheffler struggling with an injury<\/a>.\u00a0 However, fans took note of a moment that some think handed Griffin the win during the event.\u00a0 On the Sunday of the Challenge, Griffin was given a free relief drop when he found that an advertising sign was in his way after his tee off went astray.\u00a0 Fans are calling this moment ridiculous, a joke, and in some cases, sanctioned cheating.\u00a0 Now, what did this moment do much to help Griffin, and does it even matter?<\/span><\/p>\n

Griffin\u2019s Free Relief Drop<\/span><\/h2>\n

As stated before, Ben Griffin was given the free relief drop because an advertising sign was in his path.\u00a0 Analyst Mark Dusbabek explained it as it was happening on television.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe call this line of sight relief for a temporary movable obstruction. It is free relief.\u00a0 What you do is you measure on your equidistant arch from where the ball was lying, go in line with the outer limits of that temporary movable structure, which is the 18 sign, in line with the flag stick. He gets to drop in the second club length, which gets him luckily away from this tree.\u201c<\/span><\/p>\n

On the hole in question, Griffin managed to score a par.\u00a0 Some suggest that it could have easily turned into a double bogey.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Fans are very unimpressed with the free relief drop ruling.\u00a0 Part of the reasoning is that when they play their own round of golf, they enforce the old play it as it lies rule.\u00a0 Essentially, they have to work with what they’ve got, no matter what, and bad luck is just part of the game.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Some fans were complaining that Griffin and most other pros are not punished harshly enough for missing the fairway.\u00a0 Others say that pros are working in some of the most ideal conditions in each game.<\/span><\/p>\n

One golf fan said, \u201cI don\u2019t care what anyone says, the pros have it easier. I would gain a few strokes per round from stuff like this and the perfect greens.\u201c<\/span><\/p>\n

When fans were looking at the footage, they heavily doubted that the sign was an obstruction.\u00a0 Examining the footage, the sign in question<\/a> doesn\u2019t look very intrusive at all.\u00a0 It is only a couple of feet taller than the spectators around it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Should Ben Griffin Have Been Given The Free Relief Drop?<\/span><\/h2>\n

The footage shows that the sign at most would have blocked Griffin\u2019s view of what\u2019s ahead.\u00a0 Fans can argue that he could have easily just shot the ball over the sign.\u00a0 Failing that, it was a movable object.\u00a0 The sign could have been scooted over a little, avoiding this whole debacle in the first place.\u00a0 The fans were right, pros play in very different conditions.\u00a0 The play it as it lies rule has been known to create some issues.\u00a0 Rory McIlroy had a run-in with a fan<\/a> regarding a past Masters tournament when he had to do just that.\u00a0 In this case, it is possible that the free relief could have helped Griffin in the long run, but realistically, that is debatable.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: \u00a9 Raymond Carlin III-Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During the Charles Schwab Challenge, golfer Ben Griffin managed to win the event and bring home the trophy and glory.\u00a0 It is a story that doesn\u2019t have many surprises; the only real surprise was Scottie Scheffler struggling with an injury.\u00a0 However, fans took note of a moment that some think handed Griffin the win during […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5429,"featured_media":434944,"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":[8076,110],"class_list":["post-434943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-golf-news","category-pga","tag-ben-griffin","tag-charles-schwab-challenge"],"modified_by":"Taylor Craig","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434943","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=434943"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434943\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":434945,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434943\/revisions\/434945"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}