2 pros hit into bunker — then several rules and announcer come into play

One pro’s ball hitting another pro’s ball, in a bunker, from about 200 yards away. A conversation with an official. Some help from the on-course reporter. Multiple rules considered. Twenty-five minutes to play the hole. 

Or in short, bizarre-golf bingo. At the end, Shubhankar Sharma parred the 566-yard, par-5 8th at DLF Golf and Country Club during Friday’s second round of the DP World Tour’s Indian Open, and Gavin Green parred it, too. But that’s probably not why you came here. 

To begin, Sharma and Green each found the fairway from the tee, then Green hit into the left greenside bunker. Then Sharma did too, and his ball knocked Green’s a few inches backward. Of course, with the bunker a little below ground, and the players two football fields away, it would be hard for them to see the contact, and here’s where the on-course reporter came into play, along with the first two rules. 

The announcer told Sharma and Green what had happened. (Would they have known? Hard to say, and a few inches probably doesn’t matter, but we applaud the all-around honesty.) And Sharma was allowed to leave his ball where it was, under rule 11.1b, and he wasn’t penalized, thanks to rule 11.1a.

Green, though, had to move his ball back to his original lie, without penalty, according to rule 9.6. Here’s where it gets a little complicated. Green’s and Sharma’s golf balls would be almost touching — they already were pretty close — and the players, officials and on-course reporter had the following conversation, as picked up by Golf Channel mics, to determine the correct playing procedure: