Golf tournament round cancelled for dispute over blurry fringe borderline

By Park Sae-jin Posted : October 20, 2017, 16:34 Updated : October 20, 2017, 18:01

This file picture shows LPGA star rookie Park Sung-hyun speculating the fairway at the final round of the 'LPGA KEB Hana Bank CHAMPIONSHIP" in the western port city of Incheon on October 15. [Courtesy of KLPGA]


The first round of a women's professional golf tournament was canceled for the first time in South Korean golf history after a group of angry golfers threatened to boycott the second round, claiming tournament supervisors applied golf rules unfairly.

The fuss followed the tournament committee's decision to withdraw single stroke penalties given to two players who had mistaken fringes for putting greens and picked up balls after marking in the first round of KLPGA's KB Finance Star Championship, one of four major championships, at Blackstone Golf Club, in a suburban city of Icheon on Thursday.

"Because the grass was cut too short, it was very hard for players to determine which part of the course they were playing on," a KLPGA official told Aju News. "Out of six players who mistook fringes for putting greens, two received single stroke penalties at the end of the first round."

The fringe is a borderline which separates the putting green from the fairway. In normal playing conditions, players are only allowed to mark and pick up their balls only on the greens. However, players get confused sometimes when the grass is cut very short, leaving no visible borderline.

The penalties were withdrawn after the first round but some players lodged complaints the next day claiming the decision was unfair and violated sportsmanship. After a series of discussions, the women's professional golf association decided to restart the tournament on Friday as a three-round championship by canceling the first day's results.

It was the first of its kind in South Korea's LPGA history which has seen countless round cancellations due to bad weather and altered playing conditions.

 
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