Casey wins among Rules fiasco

First things first, congratulations to Paul Casey on his victory at the Porsche European Open over the weekend. This victory – his third in 18 months – sees the Englishman rise to just outside the top 10 in the World Rankings, but it was the Rules of Golf that threatened to take centre stage once again.

For once it wasn’t about slow play or dropping from knee height. Instead, Casey faced a possible two-shot penalty on Friday after videos showed his putt rolling over a moving insect on its way into the cup. Under Rule 11.2, Casey should have replaced his ball and taken his putt again if he was aware of the infringement but as he didn’t, a two-shot penalty should have been the result.

For once, common sense prevailed as under Rule 20.2, which states that we should ‘apply naked eye standard when using video evidence’, it was deemed there was no way Casey was to know there was an insect there. Surely, this is one of the weirdest scenarios this year?