Longtime pro bought a pro-shop putter. And then he was penalized 2 shots

Eddie Pepperell says his putter wasn’t working. But his clock penalized him. 

All of it made for a good story, though, and Pepperell shared it this week on a video released by the DP World Tour’s social team where pros were asked when was the last time they had bought a club. The question is an engaging one, for sure. While amateurs run up a bill, pros have club suitors lined up for them. 

Interviewed ahead of this week’s Omega European Masters in Switzerland, Wyndham Clark said his last club purchased was a putter during his rookie year on the PGA Tour. “I didn’t like my putter,” he said, “and I went to a golf shop and bought a putter and I putted with it for half the year.”

Danny Willett? He also said it was a putter — from the Augusta National pro shop for his wife for her birthday. “She said that it helped her putting,” Willett said, “so I had to buy her one.”

What about Miguel Angel Jimenez?

“I think it was a putter,” he said. “Long time, long, long, long, long, long, long time ago. And I cannot tell you when is the last time ever.”

Then there’s Romain Langasque — who said that moment hasn’t come yet. 

“I think I never bought a golf club for myself actually,” he said, “because my family was doing it and then when I was with the federation, they were getting the clubs for us, so no.”

But, in this correspondent’s opinion, Pepperell’s story was best. 

The two-time DP World Tour winner said he last bought a club in early April at the UAE Challenge, a tournament on the Hotel Planner Tour, which is the circuit below the DP World Tour. But we’ll let him tell the rest. 

“I wasn’t feeling good with my putter on the Thursday morning,” he said, “so I had an emergency trip to the pro shop at Al-Zorah Golf Club and spent about 500 pounds on this beautiful Odyssey putter.

“And then ended up missing my tee time as a consequence, kind of, so I took a two-shot penalty. 

“First putt I hit with it I hit a good putt and then I holed a 50-footer for an eagle net par because I lost my first ball. Then I threw it in the lake the week after so it didn’t last very long, but it was a nice putter.”

Good stuff. But why the two-shot penalty? Pepperell was late to his tee time, but seemingly arrived in the following five minutes. That falls under rule 5.3 of the Rules of Golf, which reads:

“A player’s round starts when the player makes a stroke to start their first hole (see Rule 6.1a). The player must start at (and not before) their starting time: This means that the player must be ready to play at the starting time and starting point set by the committee. A starting time set by the committee is treated as an exact time (for example, 9 a.m. means 9:00:00 a.m., not any time until 9:01 a.m.). If the starting time is delayed for any reason (such as weather, slow play of other groups or the need for a ruling by a referee), there is no breach of this rule if the player is present and ready to play when the player’s group is able to start.