There is always a first for everything even for English golfer Matt Wallace after calling a penalty on himself following an incident during his second round of the Valspar Championship here at Palm Habor on the Florida western shoreline.
The dozen time winning Wallace called a one-stroke penalty on himself following an incident among trees down the right side of the par-5 11th hole.
Matt Wallace explaining his bizarre penalty during the second round of the Valspar Championship. Image – GolfByTourMiss
Wallace commenced his second round 2-over par, one shot outside the expected cut-off mark at one-over but then in arriving at his ball at the 11th to find his ball landed on a lie of pine straw and leaves, where he accidentally moved it upon address before his second shot.
“It’s the first time anything list that had happened to me”, he said in being asked by GolfByTourMiss/
“I don’t think I have. I can’t recollect it. I was thinking back after, from the time I did it to walking to the next shot, I was like, has that ever happened? I don’t think it’s ever happened.
“I had to hover it so far away from the ball because this one twig was sticking out,” said Wallace.
“When I was waggling, the ball definitely moved. Didn’t know if it was in the action of my swing … but I definitely touched it, and the ball moved from that.
“I just asked a few people around, like saying — obviously I thought some people would see that, and nobody saw it. So, yeah, maybe a bit of good karma coming my way.”
After calling the penalty shot, Wallace managed to get away with a par ahead of birdieing three of his closing five holes in a score of 68 and for a one-under tally, and two shots inside the cut-off mark in the $9.1m event.
This week is his seventh event of the New Year having finished T7th in Dubai is his first event of the year while he then missed the cut in the PGA Tour’s American Express and Farmers Insurance Open ahead of T20th in the Qatar Mastesr.
Since then he was T40 at the Cognizant Classic but sat our the weekend rounds last week in the Puerto Rico Open.
