Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele put PGA Championship on blast over mud balls

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It’s not every day the world’s three best players all make double bogeys on the same hole. That’s exactly what happened to the marquee group of Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele and Rory McIlroy at the PGA Championship on Thursday at Quail Hollow, and the golf superstars were not very happy about how it happened.

“I hit in the middle of the fairway, you’ve got mud on your ball, and it’s tough to control where it goes after that,” World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler said after shooting a two-under par 69. “I kept the honour with making a double on a hole, and I think that will probably be the first and last time I do that in my career.”

Not every player left the course complaining.

European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald shot a surprising four-under 67 and is three shots back of solo leader Jhonattan Vegas, who fired a scintillating late-day seven-under 64.

The two-time RBC Canadian Open champ Vegas is two shots clear of Ryan Gerrard and Cam Smith who sit tied for second at five-under after Day 1.

Donald, 47, said he managed to avoid the worst of it.

“I didn’t have any mud balls, per se,” Donald said. “It was just sort of a watery, muddy residue on it, at times. It wasn’t really lumps of mud, which that’s when it gets very dicey.”

Jon Rahm said much the same after his 1-under 70, saying some specks of mud were the worst he had to deal with.

Thick mud on a golf ball can add an impossible variable to golf shots as the unbalanced ball spins wildly and uncontrollably once in the air.

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“We were in the middle of the fairway and, I don’t know, we had to aim right of the grandstands probably,” Shauffele said. “I’m not sure. I aimed right of the bunker and it whipped in the water and Scottie whipped it in the water, as well.”

In these conditions, the players would always prefer if tournament organizer implemented preferred lies, where they are allowed to lift, clean and place their golf ball and avoid these situations.

But this is a major championship. Not only that, this is a major championship already facing some criticism that this year’s edition is simply a glorified PGA Tour event, considering it’s being played at a course the tour stops at every year with very few changes made for the PGA Championship.

So the decision was made to play the ball as it lies.

“I don’t make the rules,” Scheffler said. “I just have to deal with the consequences of those rules. I did a good job of battling back today and not letting a bad break like that, which cost me a couple shots, get to me. I did a good job battling after that and posting a decent score.”

Rory McIlroy avoided a mud ball on the hole by missing the fairway, but slipped in the damp rough while attempting to hit his recovery shot and looked down at his shoe spikes afterward. The Masters champ shot a disappointing three-over 74.

Defending PGA Champion Shauffele was certain that his group is not alone in their dismay over the conditions in the fairways.

“I’m not the only guy. I’m just in front of the camera,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to go in the locker room because I’m sure a lot of guys aren’t super happy with sort of the conditions there … It sucks that you’re kind of 50/50 once you hit the fairway.”

Golfers complaining about the course is a long tradition in the sport and only time will tell if the dreaded mud balls will continue to be a hot topic at the season’s second major.

“They’re going to get worse as the place dries up,” Schauffele said. “They’re going to get in that perfect cake zone to where it’s kind of muddy underneath and then picking up mud on the way through.”

Asked whether there is anything a player can do about it, Schauffele was on the fence.

“I don’t know, maybe hit it a little bit lower off the tee, but then unfortunately the problem with hitting it low off the tee is the ball doesn’t carry or roll anywhere, so then you sacrifice distance. It’s a bit of a crapshoot.”

The normally mild-mannered Scheffler had strong opinions on the matter and seemed to feel the decision to play the ball as it lies is taking away is taking away his greatest skill.

“You spend your whole life trying to learn how to control a golf ball and, due to a rules decision, all of a sudden you have absolutely no control over where that golf ball goes,” he said.