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PGA Championship 2019: Pro receives penalty for showing up late to tee time, makes cut on number at Bethpage
Icon Sportswire
FARMINGDALE, N.Y.—David Lipsky will be playing Bethpage on Saturday. And you can be sure he'll be early for his tee time.
The 30-year-old began his second round at the PGA Championship with a two-shot penalty for showing up late to his pairing.
According to a release from the PGA of America, Lipsky "was walking toward the tee with his putter and a ball but was not within the area defined as the starting point."
And here's where the situation gets really odd: According to playing partner Henrik Stenson, Lipsky had a foot on the tee box stairs when he received his penalty.
"So (Lipsky) was on the putting green," Stenson said. "I walked by him when I was walking down to the tee box, and then Rich (Sterne) had came down, I didn't really pay that much attention to—the officials started making the crowd give the countdown, which when you start on 5 or 7, or whatever they started on, then there's not much time.
"So he came running down, and the decision that they say is he had one step on the—one foot on the steps of the stairs and then you're not officially on the teeing ground when the time is out, and he incurred a two-shot penalty, which it's a tough way to start the day."
Under the organization's local rules and terms of competition, the start point is delineated by "the rope, gallery stakes, green bike fencing and/or blue stakes, blue dots or blue lines." Because he arrived no more than five minutes late, Lipsky was assessed a two-stroke penalty rather than disqualified.
Also bizarre: Lipsky was teeing off at the first hole, located right next to the clubhouse, and not the 10th, which requires a shuttle ride to the tee.
With the two-shot penalty, Lipsky turned in a four-over 74 to go with his first-round 70. Luckily for the former All-American out of Northwestern, four over was the cut line, giving him just his second made major cut in his career.
If it's any consolation, if this was a normal Friday at Bethpage Black, Lipsky would have been dismissed had he not showed up an hour before his tee time.