The final round of the PGA Championship will be played under ‘preferred lies’

The PGA Championship took the rather drastic but sensible step to play its final round at Baltusrol with “preferred lies” in closely mown areas. What does that mean? Essentially, if a player is in the fairway or the fringe -- not the rough -- they can lift, clean, and place their ball back down. This is also known as playing the “ball up” or “ball in hand” or, pejoratively, “lift, clean and cheat.”

PGA Championship director Kerry Haigh was asked on Saturday night about the option of going to preferred lies. It did not sound like this was going to be an option even on the table.

Q. Is there any chance at all you would have to play the ball up for the fourth round?
KERRY HAIGH: They will be playing -- it’s unlikely, very unlikely unless -- it’s very unlikely. The Rules of Golf are there to cover wet weather.

It’s anathema to have a major round conducted with preferred lies but the course has been drenched all weekend and is expected to take on much more water Sunday and possibly Monday. The grounds crew at Baltusrol has done an incredible job just to have the course playable on Sunday morning, but there would still be a prevalence of “mud balls” given the soaked fairways and greens. When chunks of mud stick to the ball, it becomes tough to predict where it will go no matter how solid a swing you put on it.

Here’s the release from the PGA of America with the preferred lies announcement:

As a result of another 6/10” of rain overnight and with the weather forecast calling for periods of heavy rain for today, tonight and tomorrow, the Final Round of the 98th PGA Championship will be played with Preferred Lies for a ball that lies on a closely mown area “through the green.” This decision was made with the objective of completing play.

Each player will be given the notice below at the start of his final round:

PREFERRED LIES

A ball lying on a closely mown area through the green, may be lifted without penalty and cleaned. Before lifting the ball, the player must mark its position. Having lifted the ball, the player must place it on a spot within one club-length of and not nearer the hole than where it originally lay, that is not in a hazard and not on a putting green.

A player may place his ball only once, and it is in play when it has been placed (Rule 20-4). If the ball fails to come to rest on the spot on which it was placed, Rule 20-3d applies. If the ball when placed comes to rest on the spot on which it is placed and it subsequently moves, there is no penalty and the ball must be played as it lies, unless the provisions of any other Rule apply.

If the player fails to mark the position of the ball before lifting it or moves the ball in any other manner, such as rolling it with a club, the player incurs a penalty of one stroke.

Note: “Closely mown area” means any area of the course, including paths through the rough, cut to fairway height or less.

Penalty for Breach of Local Rule: Stroke Play - Two Strokes.

As with everything on the weekend at this major, it’s a bit a of mess now with a big portion of the field still out on the course playing their third round without preferred lies and now the fourth round beginning behind them with that in effect. Try to keep up as best you can!