by Phil Mickleson recovered from being wrongly penalised by referees at the Presidents Cup to halve his four four-ball alongside Zach Johnson against Jason Day and Adam Scott.
This helped maintain the United State’s slim lead over the International team in Korea. Heading into Saturday’s foursomes the USA lead five and-a-half to four and-a-half.
Mickelson and US playing partner Johnson were all square through six against Day and Scott when the left-hander switched to a harder ball to get extra distance from the tee going into the par-five seventh.
He teed off but while walking down the fairway was struck with the thought he may have broken a rule and consulted captain Jay Haas and a referee, who raised the issue with the rules committee.
After some deliberation, Mickelson was informed that he had indeed breached four-ball regulations and was disqualified from that hole, leaving Johnson to play it on his own against Day and Scott.
Day’s birdie gave the Internationals their first lead in the match, but the officials were just getting started.
Realising they had incorrectly applied the penalty for breaching the ‘one-ball condition’, officials informed the players that the proper sanction was the ‘adjustment’ of one hole, meaning the United States lost two holes in one.
Despite being incorrectly disqualified, Mickelson was denied the chance to go back and finish the hole as, according to a match committee statement, it could ‘undermine the strategy already employed by both sides’ at the hole.
“The weird thing was I’ve never heard of a match adjustment penalty,” a bemused Mickelson told a news conference after his round.
“Never heard of that. I just thought, ‘okay, well if I hit the wrong ball, no big deal, Zach will cover me this hole. I pick up, put the right ball in play the next hole’.
“But obviously that was not what happened.”
A subsequent statement from the Presidents Cup match committee read: “The committee is not allowed to have Phil go back and play in an attempt to correct the error.
“This is because once any player in the match plays a subsequent stroke, allowing a correction could potentially undermine the strategy already employed by both in the match in completing the hole.”
A 12-foot birdie putt from debuting local favourite Bae Sang-moon helped the International team slash the United States’ lead to just one point.
Daegu-born Bae’s putt boosted him, and partner Danny Lee, to a one-up win over Rickie Fowler (Navajo) and Jimmy Walker while Louis Oosthuizen and Branden Grace beat Dustin Johnson and Jordan Spieth 4&3, with Thongchai Jaidee and Charl Schwartzel edging out Bill Haas and Chris Kirk 2&1 in Incheon.
The defending champions’ sole four-ball triumph saw JB Holmes and Bubba Watson go two-up on Marc Leishman and Steven Bowditch, with the nervous Americans leading one-up for 14 of 18 holes.
The only half of the day involved Mickleson’s match.
Keegan Bradley, not a member of this USA team but a former partner of Mickelson in international play, later tweeted his disbelief, writing: “How can you lose a hole twice???! #usgarules #wow”
Mickelson did go on to provide American fans with something to cheer about, however, the left-handed player holing out for an eagle from a fairway bunker on the 12th.(B
