Bernhard Langer got shrewd with the rules. Then wowed Tiger Woods

The PNC Championship proved once again this weekend that it’s a one-of-a-kind event among nationally televised golf tournaments. Parents competing with their kids. Men playing with women. A 13-year-old in the field alongside an 89-year-old. Four sets of tees in play. Thirty-six holes. Birdie-fueled sprint to the finish. Good stuff all of it.  

The PNC’s format also is a differentiator: a two-player scramble, which is a rarity for network TV golf.

In a scramble, each player hits a tee shot and then selects the better of the two shots to play next. Same goes for the third shot, with this pattern repeating until a ball has been holed. It’s an ultra-forgiving format, which explains how both Team Langer and Team Woods shot 28 under over two rounds, and no team shot worse than eight under; the Langers ultimately defeated the Woods’ on the first playoff hole.

Scrambles are unique from traditional golf in one other important way: When players decide which shots they are going to play, they are permitted to place their balls within one club-length of the original spots. That allowance generally results in ideal lies in the fairway. Balls that find hazards, bunkers, rough, natural areas or the fringe may also be picked up and placed within a club-length but typically must stay within the “same condition” — i.e., in most scrambles, including at the PNC, tournament organizers do not permit players to move a ball from, say, a bunker to the fairway.

Improving one’s lie in one of those areas, though? That’s another matter. There is nothing in the rules that prohibits such an action, meaning players are empowered to remove their ball from, say, a dastardly fried-egg lie and place it on a more manageable lie atop the sand — again, assuming the new spot is within a club-length of where the ball originally came to rest.  

Just such a situation played out on Sunday at the PNC after the Langers — Bernhard and his son, Jason — had played their tee shots on the par-5 14th, at which point they were tied for the lead at 24 under with the Woods’. After Jason heeled his drive into the water up the left, the Langers had no choice but to play Bernhard’s ball, which landed in what looked to be a bunker on the left side of the fairway but was, in fact, deemed a natural area, which meant the Langers were free to make contact with the sand with their practice swings.

When father and son arrived at the ball, they noticed something: a small clump of sand within a club-length of their orb. Recognizing that the tiny tower could in effect act as a tee for one of their shots, they collectively decided that, strategically, it would make the most sense for their best ball-striker — Bernhard — to take advantage of the rules break and place his ball upon the mound.

Jason hit first, from a more challenging lie. He caught a fairway wood fat and popped up his ball into the middle of the fairway but a long way out from the green. Then Bernhard stepped in. Knowing he had the luxury of essentially teeing up his ball and with only a small lip to carry, he made an aggressive club selection: driver.        

“What do you think of this play?” announcer Dan Hicks said in an incredulous tone on the NBC broadcast.

“I’m loving every second of it, Dan,” said on-course reporter Jim “Bones” Mackay. “I think he thinks because he can place the ball so nicely, he can get a lot of club on the ball here and get the ball up on the green.”

Bernhard didn’t quite reach the green, but he came close. His ball rocketed out and carried approximately 230 yards before settling into a bunker fronting the green, an effort Tiger Woods later called “one of the best shots I’ve ever seen.” From there, he and Jason got up and down for a birdie 4.

It wasn’t long before a screen-grab of Bernhard’s perched lie began making the rounds on social media, with no shortage of ill-informed observers taking digs at the two-time Masters champion’s integrity. Thing was, Bernhard had done no wrong. He and his son had merely taken advantage of the same rules that were available to the rest of the field.

On Monday morning, Bernhard acknowledged in a phone interview with GOLF.com that he’d gotten “very fortunate” with his lie, but even if he’d had a less favorable lie, he said, he thinks the result of his second shot would have been similar. In that hypothetical scenario, Bernhard said, he likely would have hit a fairway wood instead of a driver and come up just short of the greenside bunker, which still would left him and Jason an excellent chance at getting up and down. Bernhard added that there also happened to be a footprint in the vicinity of his ball, which, if he had placed his ball on the imprint’s edge, also would have given him a similarly elevated lie.

After the round, the PGA Tour Champions chief rules official on-site, Joe Terry, consulted with the Langers and confirmed that Bernhard was “in complete compliance with the rules for a scramble,” a Tour spokesperson told GOLF.com by email. “Joe is 100 percent confident that no infraction occurred.”

Bernhard and Jason followed their birdie at 14 with two more on 15 and 16, a par at 17 and a clutch 4 on the par-5 closer to secure a playoff with Tiger and Charlie. Both teams replayed the 18th in the playoff, which concluded with Bernhard and Jason staring down an 18-foot eagle try for the win. Jason putt first.  

“I thought he made it,” Bernhard would say later. “When his ball was six feet from the hole, it was supposed to break a little left and it didn’t. It just stayed there. I was almost in shock that he didn’t make it because he hit such a pure putt. I was the beneficiary of seeing what his ball did. I played less break, and mine was able to bounce in there.”

That’s the thing with golf: When you catch a break, you’d be wise to take it.

GOLF senior writer Josh Sens contributed to this report.