Freddy Schott pitched to 8 feet, and about 5 seconds later, he extended his hand. He was your winner of the DP World Tour’s Bapco Energies Bahrain Championship.
Wait.
How?
After all, the tournament at Royal Golf Club was neither a match play event, nor a pitching contest like the ones you have with pals. The event was stroke play. It was played over a 7,347-yard course.
So what gives?
In play here was a rarely used rule. And a pro all over the map.
All of it happened on the second hole of a playoff on Sunday. On the first hole, Schott and Calum Hill parred, while Patrick Reed bogeyed, and the newest full-time DP World Tour pro was done while Schott and Hill played on. Hill then struggled. Hitting first, the Scotsman hooked his tee shot into the driving range and out of bounds, and his third stroke found the first cut of rough on the left side of the hole. More trouble followed. On his follow-through on shot four, he flung his iron into the ground behind him. His ball had sailed right — and off the video board right off the green.
“Hosel rocket,” an announcer on the Golf Channel broadcast said. “Oh my goodness. That’s going to sting.”
“A professional golfer’s nightmare,” another announcer said.
Indeed. After a drop, he was now hitting six. Schott, meanwhile, hit the right side of the fairway with his tee shot, and the German’s second shot finished in the rough right of the green. At this point, the announcers started to wonder: Could Hill concede?
“I don’t think he’s allowed,” the first announcer said.
“I think you are right,” the second announcer said. “I think you have to take all the misery on board, drop it and knock it on.”
According to the Rules of Golf, under Committee Procedures, there is an out, though. A concession is allowed. Procedure 7a (1) reads this way:
“In a stroke-play playoff between two players, if one of them is disqualified or concedes defeat, it is not necessary for the other player to complete the playoff hole or holes to be declared the winner.”
And that’s what was declared.
After Hill’s sixth stroke found the green, and Schott pitched to 8 feet, Hill said he was done, and the tournament was over. The players slapped hands and hugged. Rarely has a stroke-play tournament ended this way, but it can.
“Looks like it has been conceded,” a Golf Channel announcer said.
“Not sure I’ve ever seen that before.”