Rules of Golf
Rangefinder mistake cost PGA Tour winner with penalty he called on himself
Davis Riley hits a drive during the Masters.
Michael Reaves
The experimental use of rangefinders has seen its first admitted violator in terms of a penalty, with Davis Riley calling a two-stroke penalty on himself on Saturday in the CJ Cup Byron Nelson in McKinney, Texas.
While finishing the weather-delayed second round at TPC Craig Ranch, Riley pulled out his measuring device to shoot the flag at the par-3 17th hole—his eighth of the day after starting on 10. Though the hole is relatively flat, Riley saw a second number shown and realized that the slope function was on. And while the PGA Tour has instituted a six-week test period for the use of rangefinders, it is against the rules to use the slope function that allows golfers to assess yardage based on elevation change.
Riley then hit his tee shot at 17 to 12 feet, and after parring the hole he sought out PGA Tour rules official Ken Tackett to tell him about the circumstance. Tackett confirmed for Riley that he needed to accept a two-stroke penalty and a 5 on the hole.
“In that moment, I was just like, wow,” Riley said after the round. “It's just one of those times that it just sucks. It was a tough deal, and it's just a bad break. All I can boil it down to is bad luck, that by the time you put the thing in there and pull it out, it switched from just raw number to slope. It was tough.”
Because Riley said that he believed the slope mode was turned on by mistake prior to playing the 17th, he was only assessed the two-stroke penalty. Had he used the rangefinder a second time with the slope on, he would have been disqualified.
Of course, Riley, the former Alabama star who has two PGA Tour wins, will be lauded by many for calling the penalty on himself, considering only he and his caddie would have known that the slope mode was on. Riley said the 17th tee was the first time he’d looked through the rangefinder on the day, while his caddie had been shooting numbers during the round. “Obviously, if there was something wrong, he would have said something,” Riley said.
“… It's a gentleman's game,” he said. “When you start out with that, that's the integrity of the game, knowing guys are going to keep that there. You kind of have to have that same trust as if guys, what happened to me today, have the security to say, ‘Hey, I shot this, and it was accidentally on slope.’”
To Riley’s credit, he rallied from the penalty with a birdie on the next hole, and he also eagled the ninth, his 18th, to shoot 71 and make the cut on the five-under number.
Considering that the rangefinder mistake could have cost him reaching the weekend—and the money and FedEx Cup points that come with it—Riley did express concern about what could happen in the future with rangefinders in play.
“That's the rules of golf. And we certainly have a trial period here with this, and I know the USGA is trying to do something about the rangefinder and the pace of play,” Riley said.
“I think there can be … a deeper look into this just because I know this has happened numerous times. I was just talking to the rules officials on PGA Americas and Champions Tour. … I'd hate to see something happen coming down the stretch and you pull out a rangefinder, and it ends up a two-stroke penalty and costs the tournament.”