Two-shot penalty causes chaos at Korean Open: video

A poorly marked hazard caused chaos after yesterday’s final round of the Kolon Korean Open.

The 2013 Kolon Korean Open was won by South Korea’s Sung-hoon Kang yesterday, but not before a controversial ruling was made.

OneAsia Tour rules officials took 90 minutes after the final round was complete to confirm that a two-shot penalty handed to South Korea’s Hyung-tae Kim would stand, meaning Kim would finish the tournament one shot behind Kang – alongside four other players which included Rory McIlroy.

The ruling was originally made as Kim stood on the 17th tee. He was deemed to have grounded a club in the area defined as a hazard on the 13th hole that you can see in the highlights package above.

Kim pleaded his case with officials before signing his card and claimed he never grounded his club. According to the report OneAsia Tour website:

Kim argued he had never grounded his club, but was eventually persuaded to sign for a six by the Korean Golf Association rules committee, who had voted 5-3 against him.

The video looks clearly like he grounded the club but Grant Dodd who provides TV commentary on the OneAsia Tour hinted that it wasn’t quite so clear cut;

So perhaps Kim was trying to plead that he didn’t ground the club in the area he thought was a hazard. Bizarre stuff and not a great way for a golf tournament to finish.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *