During the first round of the Wells Fargo Championship, Xander Schauffele escaped from an unwanted situation with the PGA Tour’s ruling, which raised the eyebrows of several golf fans.
Schauffele carded a 7-under 64 on Thursday, May 9, and was three strokes clear after the conclusion of the opening round. While he played some incredible golf throughout the day, a ruling on the penultimate hole helped him avoid a penalty.
Xander Schauffele’s tee shot on the par 4 eighth hole went a bit right, and the ball fell deep into the woods. It took almost three minutes to find the ball, which was near the property fence line. From here, it looked certain that he would be subjected to the penalty, but he got saved miraculously.
Instead of giving a penalty, rules official Dave Donnelly awarded Schauffele free relief because one of the PGA Tour’s ShotLink towers was in his line of sight. The ShotLink tower falls under the category of a Temporary Immovable Object, making the case for free relief.
Eventually, Schauffle got to drop on the pine straw just from where hitting to the green was no difficult thing and he easily two-putted the hole for a par.
“A very stressful moment turned into a pretty stressless par” – Xander Schauffele explains the drop-gate situation at the Wells Fargo Championship
Speaking at the post-round interview, Xander Schauffele reflected on the controversial decision that helped him escape the penalty at the Wells Fargo Championship.
“If I went towards the green, the fence kind of worked this way so I had what I could hit, a 4-iron or something low and just kind of run it through. If it gets stuck, I’ll just kind of hit my next one out. But I brought the rules official in there with me because I was like, ‘You’ve got to be OK with this because this is literally the only shot I can hit,'” he said.
“So Austin and I moved two massive rocks that weren’t embedded and then I got relief out of the junk and then hit a pretty good shot on the green from there. What was a very stressful moment turned into a pretty stressless par,” he added.
The seven-time PGA Tour winner is grouped with Shane Lowry and Wyndham Clark for the second round of the Wells Fargo Championship. The trio will tee off on Friday, May 10, from the first hole at 12:17 pm ET.
