I’m all for the rules of golf but this is just stupid. In case you missed it, Abraham Ancer was assessed a two-stroke penalty after his club touched the sand at Augusta yesterday. The overall purpose of the rule makes complete sense… you don’t want someone manipulating the sand to improve their lie. The penalty was assessed after the round following a video review. You can see the video above.
Did he touch the sand with his club? I think so. Was it visible to the naked eye (which is sort of the trigger for calling an infraction)? Not unless you have some sort of super-human vision.
Golf has been in need of a rules makeover for years. Ultimately, we all want the game to be fair, but getting caught up on the minutia of things is a waste of time. New golfers often mention that they’re intimidated by the overwhelming number of rules and that it holds them back from playing more.
What we saw yesterday probably won’t help.