Three weeks ago Italian golfer Guido Migliozzi won the Cazoo Open de France at the iconic Le Golf National, however what caught the headlines was Thomas Pieters’ putt that wasn’t a putt… I addressed this in my last blog – remember? He claimed that he had been distracted whilst making his downstroke and had tried to stop his putter but failed, with the result that the ball trickled forward. The Rules Officials on the course decided that he could replace his ball without penalty, however, later it was decided that this had been the wrong decision. Luckily for Pieters, the original ruling stood and the Belgian finished in joint third place.
On the eve of the tournament the DP World Tour (formerly the European Tour) took Ewen Ferguson, who won this summer’s ISPS Handa Invitational at Galgorm Golf Club just outside Ballymena, and Victor Perez who won the Dutch Open earlier this year, to the 16th hole at Le Golf National and filmed them attempting the 14-Club Challenge. If you haven’t seen this challenge before, the rules are simple. The pros tee off and get a point for each ball that comes to rest on the green, however, they start off with a bag of 14 clubs and can only use each club once. To make matters worse, if one player uses a club, both players lose it! I’ve seen a few of these competitions, but this was the first that involved a lake!
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