Nasa Hataoka got off to a fast start at the Shoprite LPGA Classic on Friday, firing a 6-under 65 to finish in third place, two shots off the lead, and helped by a cameraman who found her ball in some fescue on her last hole. .
The next day she was disqualified.
The LPGA announced Saturday that Hataoka had exceeded the three-minute allotted time in which players are allowed to search for lost balls (Rule 18.2a), and she was subsequently deemed to have played from the wrong place (Rule 14.7) because she had not done. was under stroke and distance (Rule 18.2b).
In a statement, the LPGA said it had reviewed video footage of the situation and that Hataoka “committed a serious violation of Rule 14.7, punishable by disqualification if not corrected in a timely manner. The player had until she left the scoring area to correct this error.”
Hataoka hit her second shot on the par-5 ninth at Seaview Golf Club, her final hole of the day, right of the green and into the tall fescue. She was joined by more than a dozen people, including Golf Channel course reporter Tom Abbott, who pointed out during the broadcast that there were “concerns” about whether the search would last longer than three minutes, but that there was also no specific timing was.
The broadcast showed less than half of the total search, which ended when a cameraman found Hataoka’s ball. At that moment, a rules official arrived to help Hataoka obtain an unplayable game. Abbott then added on air: “There doesn’t seem to be any mention of the time it took to find the ball.”
Rule 18.2a states that “a ball is lost if it is not found within three minutes after the player or his caddy begins searching for it.” And 18.2b adds: “If a ball is lost or out of bounds, the player must take the stroke-and-distance relief by adding one penalty stroke and playing the original ball or another ball from which the previous trick was done.”
Rule 14.7b(1) states: “If the player does not correct the error before making a stroke to start a new hole or, before the last hole of the round, before returning his scorecard, the player disqualified.”
Jenny Shin, who is in the lead at 10 under after 36 holes, responded on Twitter on Saturday evening.
“This is probably controversial,” Shin wrote. “Nasa Hataoka getting a DQ because someone thought it was 25 seconds into the 3 minutes after the scorecard was signed shouldn’t happen. Should someone use the timing to prevent this? But maybe, if I heard correctly, there was a rules official who was there to help her get an unplayable ball and all the players/caddies in the group didn’t say anything to the referee, or even afterwards. This is likely to cost her dearly for the upcoming Olympics.’
Currently, Hataoka is ranked No. 19 in the Rolex Rankings, the second highest ranked player from Japan and three spots ahead of the next ranked player from Japan, No. 22 Ayaka Furue.
