The 2026 PGA Championship is well underway with two rounds in the books.
Over the course of two days, there have been two harsh penalties handed out. The first came on Thursday when Garrick Higgo showed up to his tee time just over a minute late and was promptly hit with a two-stroke penalty and he went on to miss the cut by one shot.
The other was assessed to Sahith Theegala on Friday afternoon. ESPN’s cameras caught the fan favorite’s ball heading to the water on the 10th hole and on-course reporter John McGuiness said the shot clipped a tree just in front of the bunker.
However, neither he nor any of the thousands of volunteers, spectators or other personnel on the course could identify where the ball ended up. As a result, Theegala was forced to take a one-shot penalty and replay the shot from the bunker under stroke-and-distance rules, which PGATour.com referred to as a “bizarre” incident.
More golf: Justin Thomas Responds to Slow Play Allegations at PGA Championship
More golf: PGA Tour Shares Scottie Scheffler News Amid PGA Championship
“The search is still ongoing, but I think we’re almost out of time,” McGuiness said on the broadcast. “It clipped a branch of that tree just in front of him and we’ve all been looking for quite some time now.”
He went on to make triple bogey, falling back to even-par. Theegala finished his round three-over on the day and now sits five shots back of the leaders, Alex Smalley and Maverick McNealy, who are both at four-under.
Theegala sits in a tie for 30th despite the unfortunate circumstance that evolved on the 10th hole.
More golf: Brooks Koepka Admits Harsh Reality of Return to PGA Tour
Read the full article here
