Ball moved by… own bag, a curious case of rule involves Olympic champion Lydia Ko

An extremely rare case of the rule occurred during the 2nd round of the LPGA Tour final, the CME Group Tour Championship in Naples, Florida. It involved Olympic champion Lydia Ko. The cause of the incident? The wind… The culprit? The player's golf bag.

This is perhaps an unprecedented situation at this level… In any case, extremely rare. Violent gusts of wind swept the Naples, Florida course during the 2nd round of the CME Groupe Tour Championship. Éole blew so hard that he made the bag fall Lydia Kowho in his fall, hit and displaced the ball of the Olympic champion.

The incident occurred on the 9th fairway. Lydia Ko's caddy undoubtedly showed a form of negligence, but the incident was without consequence. In the presence of a referee, the New Zealander was allowed to place her ball where it was previously, without penalty.

Outside influence, no penalty

Rule 9.6 was applied. She simply says:

If we are sure or almost certain that one external influence noted or moved a player's ball at rest:

• There is no penalty, and
• The ball must be replaced at its original location (which if not known must be estimated) (see Rule 14.2).

It’s a bit of the same spirit as rule 13.1d that we recently detailed in an article which asked the question “what happens if your ball moves because of the wind?”. The movement of the bag was considered to be caused by an external influence.

Lydia Ko was able to score par on hole no. 9. She is still in the game (21st) in the Florida tournament led by the American Angel Yin who has a certain Nelly Korda on her heels…

Photo Julio Aguilar / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP