Sahith Theegala Loses Ball, Then Umbrella, Up a Tree at Baycurrent

Sahith Theegala lost both his golf ball and, briefly, his caddie's umbrella to a tree during Friday's second round of the PGA Tour's Baycurrent Classic at Yokohama Country Club in Japan.

What happened on the 11th hole?

Theegala pulled his tee shot left on the par-4 11th, the hardest hole on the course, and the ball never came back down. He and playing partners Jordan Smith and Tomohiro Ishizaka heard it strike a tree but never saw it land. Theegala said he believed the ball bounced up and "embedded itself in some leaves and branches."

A rules official required Theegala to identify the ball before ruling on his options. He checked it through his rangefinder but couldn't confirm his markings, so his caddie, Carl Smith, threw an umbrella into the branches to try to shake it loose. A caddie from another group joined the effort, and Smith's umbrella ended up stuck in the tree as well. The group eventually knocked down enough branches for Theegala to identify his ball.

How was the ball ruled out of the tree?

With the ball confirmed stuck above ground, Theegala took an unplayable-ball penalty under Rule 19.2c, which states that when a ball lies in a tree, the reference point for the drop is the spot on the ground directly beneath it. The one-stroke penalty and drop led to a bogey on the hole.

A ball stuck in a tree still has a ground address under the rules — directly beneath it.

How did Theegala finish the tournament?

Theegala played the rest of his second round at one-over on the back nine and added a two-over third round Saturday, dropping him to 69th place at five-over-par for the week, three positions ahead of Aldrich Potgieter at the bottom of the leaderboard.