No, it wasn’t a shot-tracking mistake.
Matt Baldwin, a 38-year-old Englishman who plays on the DP World Tour, really did hit an 8-yard drive on Thursday at the Betfred British Masters.
Let him explain, though.
The bizarre tee shot happened on The Belfry’s 438-yard, par-4 fourth hole, which features a back tee that is mostly surrounded by water. Baldwin was 1 under through his first three holes when something strange happened as he began to swing his driver.
“Got to the top of my backswing,” Baldwin told DPWT social on Friday, “felt like a little bit of a crack maybe in the glue or in the head, so tried to stop, momentum carried me on and just clipped the ball that much here (inside heel of the clubface), and it went through my legs and nearly into the water hazard down behind me.”
Baldwin added that his first reaction was to laugh because he assumed that because he attempted to stop his swing, he’d be able to re-tee without penalty.
“But it turns out,” Baldwin said, “because I made contact with the ball, it was actually a shot and I had to play my next one from a yard in front of the tee marker, from the rough.”
There are only a few instances in which the Rules of Golf allow a stroke to be discarded: if a player starts his swing but then either stops it or purposely misses the ball on the follow-through, or if a player accidentally makes contact with the ball during a practice swing (a la Zach Johnson at the Masters) or while preparing for the shot.
So, Baldwin was out of luck. With 445 yards still to the hole, he hit 4-hybrid 180 yards with this second shot and then failed to reach the green with a 6-iron. He recovered nicely from there, though, pitching on to 10 feet and sinking the putt.
“Easy bogey,” said Baldwin, who after rounds of 72-68 sits T-14 on the leaderboard through 36 holes.