Scottie Scheffler hits out at PGA Championship controversy

Scottie Scheffler has unloaded on organisers of the PGA Championship for refusing to implement preferred lies at a sodden Quail Hollow.

The PGA of America made an unusually early call on Wednesday night not to use “lift, clean and place” for the first round, despite the Charlotte venue being battered by torrential rain this week.

Inevitably, that has led to the dreaded mud balls, with players exasperated that they were sometimes being punished despite finding the fairway on Thursday.

World No.1 Scheffler, who scraped to a two-under par 69 on day one, says he wasn’t surprised that preferred lies were not introduced, despite the downpour in North Carolina.

But Scheffler also clearly wasn’t impressed that part of his round was left to chance as he was undone by a mud ball. On the devilish 16th, his 8th, the American found the water from the middle of the fairway and wound up with a double bogey.

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“I hit in the middle of the fairway, you’ve got mud on your ball and it’s tough to control where it goes after that,” Scheffler said in his post-round media duties.

“It’s frustrating to hit the ball in the middle of the fairway and get mud on it and have no idea where it’s going to go.

“You spend your whole life trying to learn how to control a golf ball and due to a rules decision all of a sudden you have absolutely no control over where that golf ball goes.

“But I don’t make the rules. I just have to deal with the consequences of those rules.”

Xander Schauffele, who suffered the same fate on the same hole as Scheffler, was similarly unimpressed after his one-over par 72.

“I wouldn’t want to go in the locker room because I’m sure a lot of guys aren’t super happy with sort of the conditions there,” the defending champion said.

“I feel like the grass is so good, there is no real advantage to cleaning your ball in the fairway. The course is completely tipped out.

“It sucks that you’re kind of 50/50 once you hit the fairway.”

Ben Parsons is the Senior Writer at bunkered 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.