Haotong Li penalty

Apparently as soon as Li starts to take his stance it’s deemed to be addressing the ball and the caddy should be nowhere near the line of the putt ( behind ) - it’s very marginal and close , if he moved away about a second before then it would have been fine

is that an official release or your interpretation? (personally think its horse sh*t either way)
 
I thought I saw the caddie line him up in the rough earlier in the round. May have been wrong, but it did make me think he was being lined up. Not enough to make me to phone in.:eek::p
 
Think Fundy nails it (post 14) and rather than make these marginal calls that on another day will get ignored totally, why not look at DeChambeau and others and address the pace of play

I don’t get the whole pace of play issue on the tour. It’s their job and they are playing for a hell of a lot of money. As a viewer there is not an issue as they switch between players.

Where is the real problem..?

I don’t buy that juniors and amateurs copy the pros by taking more time and it’s not the pros responsibility to keep the amateurs playing quick.

Slow play is frustrating, but so are the militant fast players who seem more interested in boasting about a 3 hour round than actually enjoy the moment. I have no issue with groups ahead playing slow as long as they let you through...

Anyway...

As to Li... shocking decision for a penalty
 
Seems to me that it is a very strange ruling if they're not going to at least clarify it so that people can understand why to prevent future issues.
 
It really is a joke. How can he be helping with alignment unless the player has the club behind the ball.

When the caddy begins to move away Lee has his feet nowhere near where he is intending to line up.
 
Just seen the clip, and think he was hard done to, but no one has mentioned it yet, when was the two shot penalty applied. During through or after he had finished.
 
I do think that they need to explain why the rule was applied in this instance. Looks extremely harsh to me.
 
That must’ve cost him dearly in prize money and points - it cost me £12.53 in lost bet ( £3 each way).......just saying 😕
 
I'd imagine this is at the most extreme limit of a breach of this rule, one second either way and its clearly a breach/no breach

Must have been tough to issue it and to be on the receiving end. I'd imagine Li is fizzing about it (but accepted it) I wonder would certain other players have disputed it and argued the case to the point they weren't awarded the penalty :unsure:
 
I would have said it’s marginal either way.
However nearly everyone has said how the caddies helping line up players (especially the women) is wrong, the R&A and USGA have implemented this rule to stop it. Thas to be seen as a clear warning to all players and their caddies to be sure about where they stand, and be sure the caddy is nowhere close to being inline when the player takes his stance.
 
Looks tough but I'd say it's the right call.

Kinda where I am now

Despite not seeing anything wrong when I saw it live the rule is not just on the line but close to the line when player begins to take stance (I guess when we heard about this rule most of us thought about the instances of blatant lining up we saw each week and didn't think about the start point for such a breach)

Prob not what happened but when watching replays this morning you can easily imagine the caddy seeing Li move to his stance and thinking 'holy crap i'm not supposed to be here anymore!'
 
As one of the other caddies said...
If it was that fine a judgement, how can a referee see it from his buggy on the other side of the green?
The ruling must have been given after viewing a TV replay

The rule uses the word "deliberately"
In my view, as Li is moving towards the ball, the caddy is "deliberately" moving away.

Poor decision.
 
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