Phil Mickelson avoids crucial shot penalty after 2023 rule change

Phil Mickelson had an attentive rules official to thank for saving him from a penalty which could have cost him dearly at the PGA Championship.

Mickelson posted rounds of 73 and 72 to finish right on the projected cut line at a brutally challenging Oak Hill layout on Friday.

The +5 score should see him through to the weekend for what would be an incredible 100th cut made in a major championship.

• Zalatoris sets target date for PGA Tour return

• Club pro hits shank at PGA Championship

But he can count himself fortunate after narrowly avoiding a penalty on the challenging 6th hole on Friday amid confusion over an incorrect drop.

Lefty smashed his drive into the hazard on the treacherous par-four and then proceeded to take his drop with two club-lengths of relief.

He was then preparing to hit his approach shot when the PGA official intervened and told him he had taken an improper drop.

A lengthy exchange followed and Mickelson, clearly unsure about a new ruling, asked for a second opinion.

But as the updated R&A rule book stipulates: “The back-on-the-line relief procedure, often used for penalty area and unplayable ball relief, has been simplified so that the player now drops their ball on the line, and the ball must come to rest within one club-length of where it is dropped.”

Despite going on to card a messy double-bogey six, Mickelson was “appreciative” of the rules official who told him of his error that would have been punished with a costly one-shot penalty.

• Billy Horschel taunts 18-handicappers

• Jaime Diaz insists LIV Golf is a ‘threat’ to PGA Tour

“I ended up hitting it in the hazard and took line-of-sight and came back,” he explained after his round. “I didn’t know that they changed the rule this year, whereby you normally could take the point in line and then you have that two-club-length semicircle.

“And I guess in January they changed that to where you just only get line-of-sight, so the guy came over and saved me a penalty because I had dropped it in the ruling under last year and didn’t realize it had been changed, and he came and saved me a stroke, so I was very appreciative.”

Ben Parsons joined bunkered as a Content Producer in 2023 and is the man to come to for all of the latest news, across both the professional and amateur games. Formerly of The Mirror and Press Association, he is a member at Halifax Golf Club and is a long-suffering fan of both Manchester United and the Wales rugby team.