Transcripts - Episode 21: Morikawa Wins at Pebble Beach, Plus the Rules on the Green

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Now here's your host, Corey, with another episode of the Birdie Board podcast.

Welcome to the Birdie Board podcast. This is episode 21.

We have two things we're going to go over today. The first thing is the first signature event of the PGA Tour this season. We'll talk about that in a few minutes, and then we're also going to finish up the rule series for the last few months or so.

One of the big topics I've been going over in the podcast is just reviewing the rules. So we've gone all the way from the tee box. We've covered stakes. We've covered out of bounds, fairways, bunkers, all that. And now we've gotten all the way up to the green. So I'll talk about that later in this episode as well.

We experienced a really exciting tournament this weekend with the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am. We watched Collin Morikawa sink a birdie putt on the final hole to win the entire tournament. It was really exciting to watch.

I love kind of getting back into golf. The Super Bowl was just a couple weeks ago, so football season's officially ended. In my mind, that's a lot of times a transition from kind of that off-season mindset to like, okay, golf is finally here. We've done it. We've finally made it.

Now I stand here looking at snow outside my window, so it's not quite here on the outside of my house. But mentally, I'm there. I'm starting to get really excited. I'm really antsy for the season to start.

This signature event was exciting. It was the first non-cut event of the year. So we saw the entire field that started finish. That was really cool to see.

They all played pretty well. I was kind of shocked. The worst score really wasn't that bad at the end of the day.

If I pull up the tee times here, or the leaderboard here, Collin won with 266 overall. So he shot 69, 68, 62, 67. That 62 is probably what won him the tournament. That was one of the lowest scores of the whole weekend.

But the last place was only 297. It was shot by Jhonattan Vegas, who shot 72, 76, 74, 75. So you're talking about only like a 30-ish stroke spread across four rounds. That's a pretty tight stroke spread, especially without a cut line.

So I think we saw a lot of good golf overall this weekend.

One of the top story lines was Scottie Scheffler. He started off with a 72 in round one, which was among the worst scores of the first day. The majority of the golfers shot under 70, so that was really odd, especially for Scottie.

But he came back round two with 66. Round three was a 63, and then he came storming back in round four with a 63 on the day. So that was a huge jump back.

So I think he was in like 70th position or something like that at the beginning of the day. He stormed all the way back and actually was tied for first ending the day. Really exciting to watch, to be honest.

As he always is, he's the best golfer in the world right now. But it wasn't enough. I think that first day just was so tough to overcome.

He ended up tied fourth to finish the day or the round, but still impressive to see how far back it really looked like he had a chance to win.

Especially when he finished, he was actually, it wasn't even tied. I think I said he was tied. He wasn't tied. He was a solo lead when he finished.

And it was exciting because the weather conditions were deteriorating. I don't want to say they were terrible, but at the start of the day the wind was like 10 to 15 miles per hour, where by the end of the day it was expected to be 20 to 30.

So these guys who were going off later in the day, you're like, there's no way they're going to hang on to the lead, or those of them that were below Scottie, you're like, there's no way they're going to be able to climb back ahead of Scottie.

Like Scottie got the advantage of going out a little earlier because he didn't play as well earlier in the week, so he was going to avoid some of the weather.

The thing is, I think why it didn't end up affecting the couple people who ended up finishing ahead of him or tied with him is the wind did pick up, but it didn't pick up as bad as people thought it was going to be.

It jumped from like 10 to 15 miles per hour to like 20 to 30 miles per hour. It also was very predictable when it was just coming off the coastline.

So I think golfers were able to play the high winds still pretty well, and you saw that. I mean, every shot, they kind of shot into the Pacific at some points. It looked like they were aiming that direction. The wind would just push the ball back.

And there's still more variability than the earlier players in the day, but it was definitely something they could play with. And we saw that with Collin Morikawa finishing the day.

So Collin, he won, first time since 2023. He got 700 FedEx Cup points. So that pushed him up to third overall in the rankings.

Scottie second with 938. So Collin, he was tied for 129 with hardly any points, and just that win alone got him up to third.

And then first is Chris Gotterup. He is first because he has two wins and two top 10 finishes with 1066 points. So only 128 points ahead of Scottie.

I'm sure Scottie is going to make up that difference.

Another difference is Scottie's only played three rounds. Chris has played four. There's still a lot of golf left to play in this season, but that's kind of where the FedEx Cup standings are at the moment.

Some highlights about the course they were playing: par 72, 6900 yards, basically 7000 yards.

And the hardest hole on the weekend was hole number nine. It was a par four, 504 yards. The average score was a 4.2. On the whole weekend, we only saw 19 birdies versus 74 bogeys on that hole.

The easiest by far was the second hole. It was a par five, 516 yards. The average score was a 4.2. So basically everyone averaged a birdie on this hole.

On the weekend, there was 146 birdies, 19 eagles on this. There was only eight bogeys on this hole, and there was only one double bogey. I don't really know who got the double bogey. Must have just really not ended up going their way, but pretty easy hole there for people.

I can't imagine playing with a bunch of people and just the average score is basically a birdie. Pretty good.

The front nine played a little easier than the back nine, and overall the average score was two and a half under par. So 69 and a half was the average score on the weekend.

Really exciting round. Definitely encourage you all to catch the highlights.

If you didn't know, AT&T Pebble Beach is actually a public course. It's on a lot of people's bucket lists to play, definitely mine. I would love to play there.

It's really iconic because it's right up the Pacific Ocean. A lot of holes actually line the Pacific Ocean, so you get a lot of cool views.

They have a really iconic par three where you actually are almost like hitting directly facing the Pacific Ocean, which is pretty exciting.

I guess some crazy wind in a practice round: Tony Finau took a driver on that par three, and the wind pretty much just blew it straight back into them onto the green with I think 40 to 50, 60 mile per hour gusts.

So really exciting to watch. Definitely encourage you guys to play there if you haven't played there yet. I haven't played there yet. Something I would love to do someday though.

Alright, continuing our rule series next.

We've gone everywhere on the course so far: bunkers, fairway, rough, out of bounds, different penalty stakes, tee box. That leaves one spot left to review, which is on the green and the rules around the green.

In my opinion, compared to the rest of the course, I think the rules around the green are a little bit more relaxed. There's a lot of things like accidents that can happen that you just don't get penalized for that you would get penalized for if you were anywhere else on the course.

So we can start going into this a little bit.

The first thing is like what even categorizes as the green. This is a little bit similar to the rules of the stakes, but if it touches any part of the green at all, then you're considered on the green.

Now it doesn't make too much of a difference whether you're on the green or the fringe, not in terms of rolling. It does affect it there, but in terms of the rules, it's not a huge difference other than you cannot mark your ball or things like that if you're not on the green.

So all these rules I'm about to go over today, you have to be considered on the green. So this is the point that when your ball is actually touching a part of the green, that's when all these rules start to come into effect.

So this has happened to me before: what if you're on the wrong green?

Now we have kind of gone over this, but it shows up again since we're talking about green, is what happens if your ball lands on the wrong green.

Maybe you have a shank, or maybe you just have two greens that are close to each other and it took a bounce and you end up landing on the other green.

You get free relief not only if your ball lands on the green, but also if any of your stance is on the green.

And not only do you get free relief, but you're actually not allowed to play your ball if it's on another green, or if your stance is on another green.

This rule is in place to protect the green, so definitely follow it.

You just have to drop no closer to the hole, the hole you're actually supposed to play, and you need to drop where your stance is completely off the green.

So go ahead and take advantage of this rule because it can be really helpful, especially because around greens you typically have fairway or tight lie areas, so you could get yourself a pretty good drop and give yourself a nice approach shot into the green, the actual green that is.

So order of play. The typical order of play is the farthest person out will putt first.

This is not a hard rule and you can agree to different orders, especially if you're playing public golf. Usually pace of play dictates the order a lot more than who goes first in terms of who's farther out.

Now if you're playing competitive golf, letting those further people out go first might be an advantage to you. So if the pace of play isn't important, or you're just playing a day where you're not tight and there's a lot of room to go, you don't see people behind you that close, go ahead and play this rule because you might be able to see what the line is or how the roll is or something like that. It could influence how you read your own putt in the next shot.

So take advantage of this rule. But if pace of play, just go up there and hit your ball whenever you're ready, especially in non-tournament conditions.

Now in an actual tournament, there is a scenario where you could get penalized.

So if you guys have agreed the farthest person out is always going to be the one who goes first, and you hit your ball and it lands inside of your buddy's ball and you end up going first, technically that will be a two-stroke penalty for you for going first.

And sorry, I'm just reviewing the rules because I want to make sure I share this correctly. Yeah, so it will be a two-stroke penalty if that happens.

So I don't think I've ever actually seen this happen before, but something to be aware of, that you could get penalized if you go out of order.

Now it's all based, it's a little subjective because it has to also be deemed as a tactical advantage, which is arguable. Like, if the person goes first, how is that more of a tactical advantage for them? You're almost in a way showing the other person a line even though they're farther away.

So it could also be a penalty if that farther person away was like, "You go ahead first so I can go see the line." In tournament play or something, that would also be a two-stroke penalty for both of them because it's a tactical advantage for the person further out and the person closer has agreed to it.

So there are scenarios where this could be a two-stroke penalty. I just don't think you see it very often. I don't think I've ever seen it on tour, which is obviously where most of the competitive golf is played.

So something to be aware of, I guess mostly it's like a fun fact, probably not something you're going to see too often.

So marking the ball. You can use anything to mark your ball. If you forget something you can use a leaf, you can use, as long as it's not going to blow away. If you're using actual ball markers, you name it, you can pretty much use it as a ball marker.

If you're putting the marker down and the ball actually moves in the process, you accidentally hit it, it's kind of where I say it's a little bit more forgiving the rules are. It's not a penalty or anything like that. Just replace the ball where it was, put the marker back down.

Now the easiest thing to do to avoid controversy is don't accidentally hit the ball when you're marking it so that no one can accuse you of cheating or whatever. You know how people are, they can just kind of get weird with stuff like that.

So be careful when you put your ball marker down, but if you do accidentally hit your ball, not a problem. Put your ball back where it was and then go ahead and remark your ball.

There is actually a rule too: if you forget your marker and you don't have anything you can use, you can actually use your putter. You can just point your putter, the head of your putter, where the ball was, or I guess the base of it where the handle is, and put that behind the ball, and that's actually allowed to be how you mark your ball.

Now obviously that could get in the way of other people, so if you're kind of a closer ball and you're trying to mark it, that's probably not going to work, but it is something you're allowed to do.

Now you are allowed to have a friend of yours mark your ball. There's nothing against the rules for that. So if they have an extra marker, or you're walking up to the green, you can just ask them to mark it.

A lot of times this is common because they might already be on the green ready to putt and you might be walking up to putt. You could say, "Hey, go ahead and mark my ball, you can go ahead and putt." It could really help improve pace of play. So no rules against that, something you can definitely do.

Sometimes the ball marker could be in line of your friend. To properly mark it, you just take one to two club-head lengths to the left or right of the line. Ask your friend which direction that they would want you to mark it.

A tip that I found when I was playing with a friend of mine who actually played college golf is find something in the distance to point your putter at, so like a tree or a water bin or something like that. Point your club at that so that you remember which direction to remark your or replace your ball.

If you accidentally play your ball where you moved your marker, that is a penalty. It would be a two-stroke penalty for playing your ball from the wrong spot.

So not something, again, you see super often. The tip I read about this, I don't know, I would never probably do this, but if you flip your marker upside down it could be a nice indicator to remind yourself like, hey, I moved this, I got to move my marker back. Something that might work for you. I've never really struggled with that, but everyone's different. Everyone kind of has their moments that they just kind of overlook, and maybe that's a moment for you, so maybe that tip will help you.

If the ball moves after you place it back after marking it, you do not have to play wherever the ball moves. Go grab your ball, put it back where your marker was.

This is why you see pros a lot of times put their marker down and just leave it there while they're kind of aligning the putts, that if for some reason it accidentally moves or rolls off or something like that, they know where to put the ball back after the fact.

So this could be anything. Just gravity, the roll, it could be the wind pushing it off. Especially at nicer courses it could really affect things.

Here's another rule. This is actually similar elsewhere too, but if you accidentally hit your ball while taking a practice swing, that's also not a penalty. Just put your ball back where it was and continue playing it. Not a big deal there either.

Now if you did end up playing the wrong ball, that is a penalty. You get a two-stroke penalty for that and you have to go back to wherever your actual ball was.

Whether that's on the green or off the green, you have to play your ball and you would still have the two-stroke penalty.

So that could be very, very detrimental to your score, so make sure you're playing the right ball before you go ahead and take a stroke.

This is always a weird one to me, something I definitely don't think is a huge deal if you're playing casual golf, but if you ask for advice about the line, then that is technically a two-stroke penalty.

Now if someone gives you unsolicited advice about the line, no penalty at all.

Again, this is all like tournament play rules. I'm going to tell my buddy what I've seen, especially if they've never played a course before. I'm going to help them out and say, hey, this is a pretty strict, pretty big flow or slope to the left or right and something to really track and watch, so it might help them out. But in tournament play it could be a penalty if you do that.

Something you're not allowed to do is you're not allowed to test the greens in any way. So you can't roll a ball or do anything like that. If you do that, that will be a two-stroke penalty.

You are allowed to repair the greens though. So if you see any sort of ball marks or something like that, I kind of encourage you to do that no matter what. Carry around a ball repair tool, whatever it's called, to fix the ground so that you can have a nice smooth roll for your putts.

If your ball is embedded on the green, not a big deal. Mark it, get your ball out, fix the spot where the ball was, and then replace your ball. Play it as you would any other putt.

On the green you're allowed to move anything that's loose around your ball and your path, things like that. There's no rules against that.

One interesting rule that I found that's definitely helped me last year save us a few strokes is if there is any water on the green, you are allowed to move your ball no closer to the hole to get around that water. So you don't have to putt through a puddle of water.

This is the same if your ball is resting in water as well. You don't have to putt out of it. Just move your ball out of the water or to a spot where the water is not in line with your putt anymore, no closer to the hole, and then play that shot.

You do get that free relief without penalty.

If the ball was deflected by someone else's marker, it's just what it is. You have to play wherever the ball ended up. There's no free relief from that.

So if you think there's a marker in your path, make sure you ask your friend to move it left or right, whatever direction is opposite of where you're trying to go, to try to minimize the chance of hitting that marker because you just don't get any relief.

Now if your ball hits another ball at rest on the green, you do incur a two-stroke penalty. So make sure that you tell your friends to mark their ball so that you don't accidentally hit their ball, which would cause a two-stroke penalty for you.

If that does happen, your friend's ball is placed back where it was originally and then you have to play your ball wherever it lied after that.

If your ball bounces into the hole and out of the hole, so you dunk it, that's awesome, but unfortunately that does not count as holed out.

And then if your ball hits a flagstick while it's in the hole, there's no penalty there.

Now there's some scenarios though if you hit the flagstick out of the hole. One, if it was accidental, you get no penalty. If you've tried to make an effort to move it before your ball hits a flagstick, that's okay.

Now you might think, when would this ever happen? Well, it could.

So imagine you move the flagstick off the green but it's not like the bottom of a slope. You hit the ball a little too far and it just catches that slope and just keeps rolling down the slope towards the flag.

Totally accidental. You can try to get over to the flag to stop it, and you should. But if it hits the flag in that case, it's not going to be a penalty.

Now this is kind of subjective when you say accidental. Obviously someone could accuse you of like, oh, you put the flag there so it can't roll any further down. But you can try to avoid that the best you can.

Putting the flag off the green is really a good spot to put the flag, or just like on the fringe at the tops of slopes. That will help too.

If it is deemed that you did something intentional with the flag, it would be a two-stroke penalty.

If you accidentally hit another person with your ball, it's not a big deal, or if you hit any animal or anything like that.

If your ball hits an outside influence like a spectator, animal, someone accidentally kicks your ball, something like that, there's no penalty there. You just replace your ball and continue to play it.

Here's a question too: what if your ball is wedged between the flagstick and the edge of the cup? That is considered holed as long as the ball is at or below the rim of the hole. That is okay. It's being classified as being holed.

So if your ball's on the edge of a golf hole, you have 10 seconds to see if it's going to drop in. Sometimes it does. I've never really had this happen to me personally, but I have seen it a lot on tour.

You'll watch the pros just walk up to the ball and wait the 10 seconds to see if it's going to fall in or not.

So your putts always have to be hit. If you're careless with it and do like a push with it and just push it into the hole, you get a two-stroke penalty with that.

But you are allowed to hit it with like any part of the club. So if you see your friend go up and tap it in with the back of their club, not a penalty. That's fine. It could be careless, it's risky, but it's not against the rules.

So some of the courses we play at do have double greens. If the opposite hole is in line of your ball and the actual hole, you do get free relief of that.

It's kind of similar to the puddle rule. You just move it left or right until you get that out of your line and then you play your putt as normal.

At any point, you are not allowed to concede the hole during stroke play. You are allowed to concede a hole during match play though.

Another rule is you are allowed to protect yourself from elements. So if you want to hold an umbrella somehow and putt at the same time, that's allowed. You're just not allowed to have someone else hold it for you. If that does happen, it's a two-stroke penalty.

I think for casual golf, this wouldn't really matter as much, but like if you're playing with a caddy and it's tournament play, the caddy couldn't hold an umbrella over top of you. That would be against the rules.

And then finally, if you are done with the hole, you are allowed to practice putting and chipping on the green.

You're not allowed to go to a bunker and hit it out of the bunker, but if no one's behind you and you know you're going to be waiting on the next hole for the group to go off, go ahead and get some practice putts in. It could really help you out.

So yeah, that was this episode of Birdie Board. We went through the Pebble Beach tournament that had just happened. We also finished the rules on the green.

I'm pretty excited too. So moving on, just to some Birdie Board stuff.

There was a round that Bryson DeChambeau did. He called it the, I think, the Reebok Invitational or Reebok Classic.

Reebok was just the sponsor of this tournament he put on where he invited a bunch of YouTube golfers. There were seven of them, like Grant Horvat, I think that's how you say his last name.

Bryson was in it. The guy who was on Bryson's channel who shot the hole-in-one over his house, he was in it.

They had big names. They played a tournament handicap based.

I had an idea to see like, okay, what would their tournament look like if it was done in Birdie Board? So I'm going to make a video about that pretty soon so that you guys could all see that.

That was it for this week's episode of the Birdie Board podcast. Thanks for listening, everyone.

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