The question of the rules arises – after the expert hits the gun between his legs
Matthew Baldwin during last year's ISPS Handa World Invitational.
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Matt Baldwin, at the scene, says he laughed. A day later, when he agreed, he laughed again.
Golf, after all, is a funny game, and funny shots that go between your legs and almost fall into the water behind you are funny shots.
Wait, what?
Yes, it's true, although observers may have made a double Thursday, if they were reading Baldwin's results in the first round of the British Masters. Hole 1 at Belfry was clean; a section. Hole 2 saw a birdie. Hole 3, another section. Then came the 4th hole, a 438 yard par-4, with trees and groves guarding the fairway on both sides, some water on the right, some water in front of the green, and some water to the left and behind the tee box. it doesn't play — until your ball ends up like this, according to the DP World Tour leaderboard:
“Shot 1: 8yds, Bad
445yds to pin”
But how?? Those tagging along with Baldwin may have noticed. But most people were still in the dark, and the DP World Tour gang wanted answers. They found Baldwin at the range, and on Friday, they shared the video.
This was his speech:
“Yeah, so I got to the 4th tee yesterday and it's easy – drive to the middle of the hole, obviously if you can't get down to the middle,” Baldwin began.
“I got to the top of my backswing, I felt like I was cracking a little bit maybe on the glue or the head, I tried to stop, the momentum pushed me forward and it just clipped the ball a lot here. [here, he motioned to the bottom of the bottom of the club] and it ripped through my legs and almost got into a water hazard going down behind me. So I think the total went about 8 yards. So yeah, it was interesting.
“I just laughed because I was telling myself that because I tried to stop I would be able to hit it again and play the hole, but it turned out that I connected with the ball, it was a shot again. I had to play my next one from the yard in front of the tee marker, the tee was broken. “
Let's unpack this.
We love that not only is the 38-year-old Englishman sharing it, but he seems to be enjoying doing so. We've all been there, too, in some shape or form.
But what about his thought about this law?
The definition of the word “stroke” helps. It reads well like this: “The forward movement of the club caused it to hit the ball.” But a stroke is not made if the player: Decides during the downswing not to hit the ball and avoids doing so by deliberately stopping the clubhead before it reaches the ball or, if unable to stop, by deliberately missing the ball; he accidentally hits the ball when throwing or preparing for a stroke.” (Notably, practice throws are included here, and Zach Johnson can attest to that from memory.)
Of course, Baldwin still had 445 yards to go. What happened since then?
“The next shot, I had to hit a 4-iron hybrid, which went about 180 yards,” he said in the DP World Tour video, “I hit the 6-iron down by the fairway, threw it about 10. feet and hit it to get an easy bogey.”
The story gets better.
Baldwin played even par from there in the first round, then shot a 6-under 68 in Friday's second round, and will start Saturday respectably tied at 14 strokes and six out of the lead.
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