'Don’t look for the ball': How Scottie Scheffler found WILD Open rules break

On Sunday, July 19, 2026, at the 17th hole of the renowned Royal Birkdale course during The Open Championship, an incident unfolded that will be etched in history as one of the most unusual applications of golf's rules. The protagonist was Scottie Scheffler, a four-time major champion, who managed to leverage a complex situation into an advantage thanks to his understanding of the rules and decisive action.

“I got a good break there on 17,” Scheffler said after his round. This moment was undoubtedly pivotal, allowing him to close the gap to the leader by one stroke, though the sequence of events was far from ordinary. The play involved a tee shot that raised questions, a risky decision to hit driver off the deck, two errant shots, and finally, an extended consultation with a rules official.

An Unexpected Bounce on the Par-5

On the 571-yard, par-5 penultimate hole, Scheffler attempted a 3-wood to slice his ball back into the fairway. However, the ball, instead of staying on the fairway, kicked left and ended up in the rough behind a 30-foot mound. The player's reaction was immediate and emotional:

“Why? Why? How does that even happen? That ball’s slicing. One bounce.”

“I was thinking I hit another shot that I felt like was going to be in the fairway,” Scheffler explained afterward. “That ball was slicing on the left edge of the fairway, and I hadn’t seen many balls that just have not bounced, especially when they’re curving sideways out here, and it was like, man, I got that break on 13 where I hit it in the rough and I couldn’t advance it more than 10 feet, and then 14, I thought my ball was in the fairway, and then on 17, it’s like, that ball is cutting.

“The shot there for me, if I hit a normal 3-wood, it’s going to get to those three bunkers so I have to put a ton of spin on it, and I did that basically by slicing the ball. So I hit the shot I needed to to get the ball in the fairway, and the ball didn’t react the way I thought it would off the tee. Yeah, you’re thinking, give myself a look for eagle, of course.”

The Driver Gamble and 'Clarets'

From behind the mound, 298 yards from the green, Scheffler decided to go for it with a driver off the deck. The Open’s defending champion, who started the hole two shots back of the lead, was looking to cut his deficit. However, the ball hooked again, ending up left of the green, left of the rough, and left of “Clarets” – a specially constructed 30-yard seating area overlooking the putting surface.

“This is a mile left,” on-course analyst John Wood said on the NBC broadcast.

“Oh my gosh,” announcer Terry Gannon said.

Scheffler tried to see where his ball finished. A rules official also came over. “The rules official said it landed just barely left of the grandstand thing,” Scheffler said. “I don’t know what you call that, like a sponsor area or something. And Teddy [Scheffler’s caddie, Ted Scott] had a bead right on where it was coming down.”

The Provisional and the TIO Rule

From the same spot where he hit his second shot, Scheffler took a provisional drop. He then hit a 3-wood again, but the ball hooked and finished to the right of “Clarets.”

A rules discussion ensued. To the left of “Clarets,” Scheffler and Scott spoke with a rules official, and Scheffler stated he was told his ball was “past the fence that marks the TIO, so [the official] said anything that’s in there is part of the TIO.” TIO stands for temporary immovable obstruction (like tournament seating, such as “Clarets”), and players can receive relief from them under Model Local Rule F-23 of the Rules of Golf.

The Crucial Decision: Not Searching for the Ball

But what about the ball itself? As the discussion unfolded, observers searched for Scheffler’s ball, but they were told to stop. Among them were Wood (“Woody”) and a security official assigned to Scheffler, whom the player later referred to as “Brucey” in a press conference.

Why not find it? This is also addressed under Model Local Rule F-23, which reads: “If the player’s ball has not been found but is known or virtually certain to have come to rest in a TIO, the player may take relief under this local rule by using the estimated point where the ball last crossed the edge of the TIO on the course as the spot of the ball for purposes of finding the nearest point of complete relief.”

In Scheffler’s case, this meant he could drop his ball left and about 100 yards short of the green, in a spot trampled down by fans. If the ball had been recovered, Scheffler was told he would have had to take his drop in a less advantageous spot.

“We tried to figure it out,” Scheffler said. “I said, if I find it, does that help me? Can I drop it — since that would be about 50 yards closer to the hole? He said, yes, you can then use that spot, but you might have to go to the other side of the TIO, which I didn’t know exactly where that would be, and that’s not a great angle coming across there. So decided to stop the search and go back and drop it doing point-of-entry TIO relief. Actually I did that once this year during the Byron as well [the CJ Cup Byron Nelson event]. Not something I’m proud of, but I was familiar with.”

So Scheffler didn’t find the ball?

“I stopped them,” he said. “They had guys pointing from up there, like it landed right here, and I just kind of hauled up there, and I was like, guys, get out of there, stop, do not find the ball. Fortunately, it was my security guy that I’ve had for a few years here. His name is Brucey. And then Woody was up there as well. So both those guys are pretty — I know them quite well, so when I said, please don’t look for the ball, they got out of there.”

The Aftermath and Conclusion

Scheffler then dropped about 100 yards from the hole, pitched to 9 feet, and made the ensuing birdie putt, moving him one shot back of the lead. Reactions to the sequence can certainly vary. Did Scheffler follow the rules? Yes. Is the rule funky? Yes, in that Scheffler’s ball went left of left, but he was able to play his next shot in a favorable spot due to temporary seating.

From there, he bogeyed 18, and he finished three back of winner Ryan Fox. “Yeah, I mean, today was a great effort,” Scheffler said. “I felt like I was doing the right things out there. I gave myself a lot of looks again today. It was just — I guess it just wasn’t my week. I got a good break there on 17, but off the tee, my ball — I don’t know if you watched the shot. It probably should have been in the fairway.

“Yeah, that stuff hurts. My ball on 13 goes into that hole. It wasn’t my best tee shot, but it was a time where I needed to be aggressive, and I saw some good stuff happening with guys that hit the ball over there the last few days, and it didn’t happen for me today. Just those little kind of bounces. My ball on 14 I think is in the fairway, I come up there, it’s in the pot bunker. Little stuff like that over the course of the week tends to add up.

“I competed really well this week. I did a good job of staying patient and hit the ball really nice over the course of four days. Maybe yesterday was the only day I didn’t strike it as well as I would have liked to.”