Posts Tagged UBS Hong Kong Open

We were fortunate to be a Rules Observer this year at the UBS Hong Kong Open at the Hong Kong Golf Club in Fanling. This was the first professional tournament that we attended as a rules official. We followed a qualified Rules Official to observe how things were done.

On our first day, we walked the course with Brian Choa (Hong Kong’s walking rule book), Candi Anna Chan and Nancy Wong. This was to familiarize ourselves of the course and see if there were any particular areas that needed special attention. For example, we found a new urn on the left of the Par 3 2nd hole. This was not marked as Ground Under Repair and since it may not be obvious to the players, we suggested that it be clearly marked.

On the first two days of the tournament, we were under the wings of Brian Choa and were involved in some interesting rulings.

• Thomas Björn hit a ball into the trees on the left of the 3rd hole. His ball went deep into the woods past the narrow lateral water hazard. We didn’t think he would try to find it in the thick stuff and just play his provisional ball that was on the fairway, but he was determined to find his original ball. He found his ball within the five minutes and tried to hack it out but failed and ended up losing it. Playing four he dropped another ball in the woods and tried again. This time his ball still didn’t get out and trickled into the water hazard so he was able to drop another ball on the fairway side of the lateral water hazard playing six! Why he didn’t play his provisional ball from the fairway, we’ll never know.

• Spaniard Pablo Larrazábal hit his tee shot on the Par 4 6th and ended up on a drainage grate next to a deep bush. The interesting thing was that the grate cut across the cart path with the two ends protruding outside the margin of the cart path. Pable was very cleaver to ask whether the grate and the cart path were separate obstructions or treated as one. After confirmation, they were to be treated as separate. So the first drop to take relief from the grate ended on the cart path and then relief from the cart path ended up in the rough on the side nearer the fairway. This was smart as otherwise, the nearest point of relief if they were combined would be in the bushes and there would have been no clear shot to the green.

• Right after Thailand’s Prom Meesawat’s stroke for his birdie putt on the Par 4 4th hole, we felt the earth tremor and later found out that we were hit by a 2.8 earthquake. Luckily, Prom made the birdie…maybe the shake helped?

On the third day of the tournament, we had a very fruitful day. We followed Thomas Waldenstedt to mark the course for the front nine holes. We placed tee markers for the day’s play, checked the bunkers, made sure that the rakes were outside the bunkers and checked to see if any of the hazard lines needed to be remarked. On the greens, we checked the holes and flags to make sure there were no damage as well as find the pin position for the final day. The quadrants were predetermined and we had to find a spot that was relatively flat (preferably less than two degrees slope all around). This was a bit tricky on the 7th as the green had many undulations, so it took a while. But we finally found a spot. The hole location was marked from the front of the green and from the sides (either left or right – facing the green from the tee). So a pin position might be 7L4 meaning it is 7 yards from the front and 4 yards from the left edge. This information was then used for the pin sheets for the players on Sunday.

We then had the honor of roaming with Ftitz Katzengruber who is a regular referee on the Asian Tour. He gave us a lot of insights of being a referee and how it takes time for players to recognize a newbie and gain credibility. Experience is key and that can only be gained over time.

The highlight came after Fritz and I gave David Howell a verbal warning for slow play on the 10th hole just after they teed off. On the 10th green, we met John Paramor (chief referee of the European Tour) and Mikael Eriksson (also from the European Tour) and John quickly insisted on putting David on the clock. His reason was that he took more than one minute for his second shot even after our warning when he should have done so in 50 seconds. So we were lucky to sit in John’s golf cart and see the master at work. We stayed with John for the latter part of the day, following the final group down the 18th. Unfortunately, we had only one ruling and it was a simple one with Y.E. Yang asking if there was relief from tree roots on 18! That was it! “No” was John’s decisive response. Unfortunately we did not have any complicated rulings but we did have a good chat and we were even caught on TV.

Our final day was with Candi Anna Chan and we were involved in Iain Poulter’s lateral water hazard troubles on the 3rd hole. Despite bogeying this hole, he managed to win this year’s title with a stunning 22 under, albeit playing under preferred lies. This was a great experience and hopefully we’ll be back next year…as official?

As we had our referee cap on this week, we did not take many photos but did manage to get Rory McIlroy’s and Matteo Manassero’s signatures. Thanks.

101121 UBS HK Open - 7th tee @ 7:30am on 2nd day

101121 UBS HK Open - Rory McIlroy's signature

101121 UBS HK Open - Matteo Manassero's signature