My Top 10 Rulings

10 Boo Weekley
2007 Arnold Palmer Invitational
Bay Hill Club & Lodge

As anyone who has played the Old Course at St Andrews regularly knows, very large greens can lead to situations where one has to play a pitch shot from on the green to a distant pin. As a number of players have subsequently found out to their cost, hitting the pin in such a situation is actually a punishable offence. The fact that one was chipping doesn’t change the rule regarding having the pin tended or removed while playing on the green, and the penalty is a loss of hole in matchplay or two shots in strokeplay.
At the par-3 2nd hole at Bay Hill, Tom Johnson played a 30-yard chip from a distant corner of the green toward the untended pin. The shot was beautifully played and his ball was tracking to the hole when his playing partner Boo Weekley suddenly realized the danger and ran over to remove the pin. A potential two-shot penalty saved? Not quite.
Meanwhile, golf’s unique army of amateur rules officials was at work and “someone” raised the issue with rules officials. Unfortunately, both pros had forgotten Rule 17-2 on unauthorized attendance which states that a player has to request that someone tend or remove the pin. Johnson was formally asked if he had requested that the pin be removed, and he of course had to say no. Instead of Johnson getting a two-shot penalty, Weekley was instead penalized two shots, which he accepted with commendable grace, saying. “Thanks, I learned something.” Afterwards, Johnson told Boo, “You handle adversity better than anyone I've ever played with”, to which Boo eloquently replied “I don't think nothing about it”, which is almost certainly true.