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Tommy Fleetwood found himself on the receiving end of a tough break during his first round at The Open Championship on Thursday afternoon, after his ball landed in a bunker that hadn’t been raked.
The Englishman, who was a favourite coming into the week, wrapped up his opening round at two-over-par, carding five bogeys.
The 34-year-old, who came so agonisingly close to winning his first PGA Tour event at the Travelers Championship in June, began his round well, making par on his first three holes.
He’d hit a bogey on the fourth, before teeing up a drive on the par-four fifth hole, sending a high cut 290 yards down the fairway, into a pot bunker just 30 yards from the green.
Upon arriving at the hole, a caddie from the player who had last landed in the bunker, hadn’t raked the sand.
As he walked up to the sand trap, Fleetwood was not pleased with the lie.
A dejected Tommy Fleetwood cut an anguished figure on Thursday at The Open after he was on the receiving end of an unfortunate lie
Fleetwood wrapped up his day two-over-par, but the Englishman was left fuming after he found himself in a pot bunker on the fourth hole
‘For f***s sake, man,’ he was overheard saying on the World Feed broadcast.
On commentary, legendary caddie Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay explained how the lie looked.
‘Tommy now has an awful lie, lucky to avoid the footprints that were made by the previous player,’ he said.
Fleetwood would chip out, but admitted that he was unable to get a solid contact on the golf ball as he tried to dig his shot out over the arching lip of the sand trap. His ball travelled six yards into the rough on the right, with the Englishman going down for a bogey.
In the past, the R&A has traditionally deployed greenkeepers to rake bunkers, in a bid to both speed up play and let caddies work with players.
But this week, that has all changed. The responsibility now lies with the caddies, which R&A chief Mark Darbon explained on Wednesday was a ‘good change’.
While Fleetwood took ownership himself for landing in the bunker, and didn’t want to pass blame on anyone else, he was frank about his thoughts about how the bunker had been left.
‘It wasn't a great rake job. I probably could have managed it - first thing is I was not very happy to be in there,’ the 2017 Race to Dubai winner said. ‘That was the first thing, so that's my fault.
Ahead of the tournament, the R&A had changed the regulations on raking bunkers, previously advising that their course marshalls would rake the bunkers instead of caddies
And it appeared Fleetwood had landed in a bunker that was not properly raked by the player's caddie who had previously landed in the sand trap, with the Englishman overheard saying: 'For f***s sake man'
‘Things weren't going well. It was like in somebody's hitting mark that hadn't really been raked great.
‘I probably could have managed it better. I still felt like I could hit - I tried to hit what I thought was the right shot, like kind of duff something because I knew I couldn't get any sort of strike perched on the ball so I tried to duff it, but then you've got to get the height as well. So that was a bit harsh.’
After the incident, Fleetwood admitted that he thinks bunker rakers should return, adding that there had been some lack of communication between the R&A and players about whose responsibility it belonged to.
‘Yeah, I don't remember when it changed actually. Was it really? They've always had bunker rakers until this week? I thought so. I thought that was odd.
‘I mean, still, you just rake the bunkers, right? It's part of the game.
‘You don't know what's gone on before. I'm not going to hold it against anyone too much. You don't know what was going on, you don't know what was happening in that moment. I'm not going to get angry about anyone where you don't know what's happening, but it wasn't great, and yeah, bunker rakers would have been nice.’
Speaking on the rule change on Thursday afternoon, former PGA Championship winner Rich Beem was perplexed as to why the R&A chose to make the decision.
‘It was a luxury that we had for many, many years,’ Beem who will feature on The Open exclusively live on Sky Sports as a golf analyst, said. ‘And it was great because we knew that they were all greenskeepers somewhere around just volunteering their time.
Sky Sports golf analyst Rich Beem explained his bewilderment at the ruling, asking why there has been such a big deal around the rule change
Beem explained: 'Again, I don't know the [R&A’s] rationale. But I'm like, why is this a big deal? You know, these guys do it all the time'
After his round, Fleetwood explained that the R&A might not have been clear when announcing the rule change to players
‘Listen, these guys rake the bunkers after they clean up after themselves or their players every single other week of the year, why is this one any different?’
The matter is particularly topical considering some players, including Rory McIlroy, Fleetwood and Justin Thomas spent over six hours on the golf course yesterday, due to slow play.
‘Again, I don't know the [R&A’s] rationale. But I'm like, why is this a big deal? You know, these guys do it all the time. And here's the thing, is that it's not like the caddy is being left on his own. The caddies have teamwork.’
Beem then suggested an innovative way caddies can work together to keep the pace of play going.
‘So if a guy hits it into a fairway bunker say that said I hit a fairway bunker on three you hit a right man on the fairway you hit first I have to dump mine out your caddy will come over rake the bunker while we go down the fairway it's teamwork because the caddies are still, I mean, they're still a little brotherhood out there as well.
‘They're kind of looking after each other as well, because they're trying to make sure the pace of play keeps moving on.’
‘I thought that was always one of the cool and unique things about this championship, because it had that own unique little vibe.
‘And, you know, caddies, I know my caddy was always like: “Are you sure I can rake this?”
‘”No, no, it's my job”,’ his caddie would say back.
Watch live coverage of The 153rd Open from Royal Portrush exclusively on Sky Sports and NOW from Thursday 17 July, with wall-to-wall preview coverage available from Monday 15 July on Sky Sports Golf.
