Eckroat’s birdie would have stood had his putt fallen during this time, but as it was classed as being “at rest”, an additional penalty stroke saw him card par for the hole. The rule drew the ire of some fans responding to video of the incident posted by the PGA Tour on X. Since the ball took longer than 10 seconds to drop, a stroke was added to Austin Eckroat's score and was counted as a par. pic.twitter.com/xwhGBzIy8z — PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 17, 2024A similar series of events at last year’s PGA Championship involving American Lee Hodges saw the tournament’s rules body issue a statement explaining the penalty. There was no official statement from The Players rules committee for Eckroat’s incident as the penalty was “just the application of the rule,” a spokesperson for the PGA Tour told CNN.

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Persons: Austin, Eckroat, Jared C, Tilton, Joel Dahmen, intently, ”, Michael McEwen, Austin Eckroat's, xwhGBzIy8z, American Lee Hodges, Xander Schauffele, Wyndham Clark Organizations: CNN, Getty, North, PGA, American, Players, PGA Tour, Eckroat, US Locations: American, Florida, North America