Gian-Marco Petrozzi thought he was following an elementary rule of etiquette, but his action cost him dearly, no less than blowing the chance to qualify for the final of the European Tour’s Qualifying School, the Q-School.
The 21-year-old Englishman was playing the final round of the second stage of the Q-School in Spain and was doing exceptionally well: with a hole-in-one at the halfway point and five birdies in his last six holes. Petrozzi had shot a 65, good enough to earn a spot in a playoff for a spot in the final stage of the School.
But shortly after holing his last putt he knew he had broken a rule on the final hole. As he walked a bit to calculate his approach, Petrozzi had walked through a fairway bunker. He raked his tracks on the way back to his ball, but his courtesy later resulted in a two-shot Rule 13-2 penalty for improving his line of play:
That Rule 13-2 that nipped Petrozzi’s chances of making the Q-School final in the bud is the same one that gave Phil Mickelson a two-shot penalty last summer at The Greenbrier when he flattened some tall grass in front of the tee.
The penalty turned Petrozzi’s 65 into a 67, meaning he missed the playoff and saw his hopes of winning the 2019 European Tour card go up in smoke.
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