Brooks Koepka claimed his fifth major title and third Wanamaker Trophy by winning the 2023 PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York, holding off Viktor Hovland, who had showcased a tight final-round battle on Sunday until one major hiccup on the 16th hole.
Trailing Koepka by a shot, Hovland’s ambitious approach shot from the bunker on the right of the 16th fairway only advanced a few yards before it got plugged in the grass just above the bunker.
While a bunker – being one of the five defined areas of the course, along with the general area, teeing area, penalty area and putting green – is a specially prepared area of sand with some restrictions to confront its challenges, the grass bank lip of this prepared area that consists soil and grass is part of the general area, not the bunker.
As Hovland’s second shot from the bunker ended up in its own pitch mark on the grass bank, made as a result of his previous stroke and part of the ball was below the level of the ground, the ball was embedded in the general area. Under Rule 16.3, Hovland was entitled to free relief as an embedded ball is not treated as part of the challenge of playing the course and therefore the Rules of Golf provide free relief for such situations.
In taking relief, Hovland first had to find relief in the general area right behind where the ball was embedded on the steep bank. He then had to drop the ball within one club-length no nearer the hole and in the general area from the spot right behind where the ball was embedded. This meant dropping the ball on the steep bank framing the bunker, but also in thick long grass leaving him with a very tricky shot.
As a result, Hovland ended up signing off a double-bogey for the hole, eventually leaving him two shots behind Koepka in a share of second place.
Incredibly, the very same situation had taken place the day before. Corey Connors attempted the same shot from the same bunker and finished up in the same place in round three.
However, in finding the reference point for relief under Rule 16.3, there was no spot in the general area right behind the ball as the ball lay so close to the edge of the bunker. While a rare situation, Clarification 16.3b/1 provides the guidance in these situations. The relief procedure requires the player to find the nearest spot in the general area that is not nearer the hole to the spot immediately behind where the ball embedded. The referee guided Connors to this spot away from the bunker edge no nearer the hole, and then Connors was able to drop the ball within one-club length of this spot.
