A frustrating rules blunder costs Adam Scott a two-shot penalty at Doral (and it could have been worse)

Ten years removed from winning the WGC-Cadillac Championship in the PGA Tour’s last visit to Doral Resort, Adam Scott returned this week to the Blue Monster as an “honorary” defending champion. The Miami resort that had hosted a popular tour event for more than five decades was added back to the schedule this year for the first time since 2016 with a “new” Cadillac signature event.

Scott’s fond memories of his last appearance at Doral, however, were muted during Thursday’s opening round, when the 45-year-old Aussie made a costly rules blunder. After two birdies offset by two bogeys on his opening seven holes, Scott pulled his tee shot into the rough on the par-5 eighth hole. He played his second shot out of the gnarly lie but when he was preparing for his third, he realized the ball that he hit wasn’t actually his.

Playing the wrong ball is a violation of Rule 6.3 and comes with a two-shot penalty. Thankfully for Scott, when he returned to the spot where he believed his original drive landed he managed to find that ball. From there, he played what counted as his fourth shot, putting his ball back in the fairway. He then hit the green from 147 yards with his fifth shot and two-putted from 15 feet for a double-bogey 7.

While Scott was upset with transpired, it could have been worse. Had he not realized he had played a wrong ball, played out the hole with it and proceeded to tee off on the next hole, he would have been subject for disqualification. As our rules expert Ron Kaspriske pointed out in an edition of his weekly Rules Review department that focused on how to proceed after hitting a wrong ball, Rule 6.3 specifies that a player who plays a wrong ball must correct the mistake by going back and playing your ball to finish the hole.

And what would have happened if Scott, after becoming aware of hitting a wrong ball, couldn’t find his original ball in the rough? He would have had to play under the rules for a lost ball, adding another penalty stroke and proceeding back to the tee box, where he would have been hitting his fifth shot.

Scott proceeded to make eight straight pars after the blunder, then bogeyed the last two holes to post a four-over 76 and sit 12 shots back of early leader Cameron Young in the no-cut event.

“Yeah, I mean, it’s such a silly thing to do,” Scott said afterward. “I think it’s the first time I’ve ever done it in my career. That’s probably one of those things everyone ends up doing once. But an odd set of circumstances leading up to me not checking it, which I think I’ve done thousands of times.

“To take two lumps there was, is tough, especially as you sit here now in the weekend and thinking if you’re two better you would be doing so well in the tournament.”