MEXICO CITY — Rickie Fowler was a victim of golf’s new rules on Friday when he failed to take a proper drop from knee height during the second round of the WGC-Mexico Championship.
On his first hole of the day, the par-4 10th at Club de Golf Chapultepec, Fowler shanked his second shot out of bounds, meaning he needed to drop from the same place.
It appeared Fowler instinctively dropped from shoulder height, then hit the ball on the green and two-putted for a 6.
But the new rules that went into effect on Jan. 1 require a drop from knee height.
Because Fowler did not correct the mistake — he is allowed to do so before playing the next shot, without penalty — he was assessed a one-stroke penalty. That changed his score of double-bogey 6 to a triple-bogey 7.
While many of the new rules instituted this year were meant to make the game simpler, this has been a common source of irritation due to the awkward nature of the knee-height drop and the fact that no advantage is gained from dropping at shoulder length.
The specific rule is 14.3b, which says the ball must be dropped in the right way.
“That you have to drop it from knee height is a bit absurd, unfortunately,” Bryson DeChambeau said earlier this year. “I think that you should be able to go from knee height to shoulder height. There should be no issue with that, whatever you want to do, honestly.”