The Rules of Golf are extensive and can be pretty confusing at times. On top of the rules, there’s golf etiquette, which can also be weird, but is common sense for the most part. Especially among professionals.
For instance, when your playing partner or opponent is reading a putt on the green, you walk around them. And if you do accidentally walk in front of someone while they’re lining up a putt, there’s an immediate apology, right?
The same situation played out between the top two players in the world during the first round of the PGA Tour’s 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship, the first leg of the FedEx Cup Playoffs, at TPC Southwind on Thursday. Except there wasn’t an apology, just a weird look that made it seem intentional (or maybe he just wasn’t paying attention).
Let’s have a little fun and think about this for a second: if it was intentional, why would Scheffler do something so petty?
Reports broke earlier this week that Smith would be one of the next players to leave the PGA Tour for the Greg Norman-led and Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf Invitational Series. When the 28-year-old Australian, winner of this year’s Players Championship and British Open, was asked about the report, he had “no comment.”
Maybe Scheffler’s walk-through was the start of the petty wars between Tour and LIV players. Or maybe it was just one of those socially awkward moments that the PGA Tour Live crew and a Twitter user just happened to catch on camera. After all, Scheffler did high-five Smith after his hole-out from the fairway earlier in the round.
Only time will tell, but either way it was weird.
Saudi Arabia has been accused of wide-ranging human rights abuses, including politically motivated killings, torture, forced disappearances and inhumane treatment of prisoners. And members of the royal family and Saudi government were accused of involvement in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist.
Story originally appeared on GolfWeek
