Matthew Wolff calls rules official after BEETLE moves his ball
Matthew Wolff had to call a rules official during the 3M Open after a beetle moved his ball on the fairway.
Another day on the PGA Tour, another rules incident, although this one was a little unique. Matthew Wolff had to call over a PGA Tour rules official during the first round of the 3M Open after a beetle crawled under his ball on the fairway and moved it.
Defending champion Wolff is two strokes off the lead after posting a 6-under par round in Minessota and will be confident in closing the gap as he looks to find his second victory on the PGA Tour.
After making a birdie at the 1st hole and following up with a bogey at the 2nd, Wolff split the fairway with his drive at the par-4 3rd and faced a 171-yard shot into the green, but then spotted something under his ball.
A beetle had crawled under Wolff's ball and moved it "maybe a dimple" but enough for the 21-year-old to want to get a rules official involved to ask if he could replace his ball. Watch the incident in the video below:
"That would've been a shame. Striped a shot and it just goes ..."@Matthew_Wolff5 had some struggles after a beetle climbed under his ball. pic.twitter.com/9LTxPsX2aT
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) July 23, 2020
"There's a beetle like under my ball and it's like moved it a little," said Wolff, who was wearing a microphone during the first round of the 3M Open.
"I was literally over the ball like getting ready to hit it and then I was like 'wait is that a rock?!' and so I went like this to try and move it and it just started crawling and went under the ball."
Once the rules official arrived at the 3rd, Wolff explained to him what had happened and told the official his ball had moved "maybe a dimple" but he couldn't be sure how much.
The rules official was happy for Wolff to mark his ball, get the beetle out the way and replace his ball to its original spot. Wolff went on to find the green with his approach shot and two-putt for par.
Wolff goes into the second round in a tie for 3rd with six other players, including Tony Finau who was in fine form once again.
Richy Werenski shot the low round of the day with an 8-under par score of 63, to take a one shot lead over Michael Thompson.
GolfMagic's 125/1 each-way pick Xinjun Zhang got off to a brilliant start to join the 6-under par pack in T3.
