Rory McIlroy’s drop Sunday at the U.S. Open was incorrect, the USGA says.
In speaking to Sports Illustrated, Thomas Pagel, the USGA’s chief governance officer, explained that McIlroy, under guidance from a rules official, measured his point of relief from an embedded lie in the fescue above a greenside bunker from the wrong spot on the par-5 14th hole at Los Angeles Country Club.
“The nearest point of relief was mis-identified; it should have been directly behind the ball,” Pagel told SI. “If there’s no area immediately behind the ball, you go to nearest point in the general area.