DUBLIN, Ohio – For the second time in two starts Justin Rose found himself in the middle of a bizarre rules infraction.
Rose, who was penalized earlier this month at The Players Championship but later absolved of any wrongdoing when his ball moved after he had addressed it adjacent to the 18th green at TPC Sawgrass, was penalized a stroke when he double-hit his chip shot from behind the 12th green at Muirfield Village on Friday.
This time, however, the Englishman called the penalty on himself.
“It was pretty obvious,” said Rose, who took a double-bogey-5 on the hole and missed the cut by a stroke. “I wanted them to verify that it wasn’t a triple hit. After what happened at TPC I wanted to make sure.”
Rose birdied his final two holes to finish at 1 over par after a second-round 72. He couldn’t ever remember double hitting a shot, but described his lie behind the 12th hole as “shocking.”
“I knew double hitting it was a possibility and tried to just let the club stay in the ground but it bounced up and caught it,” said Rose, whose penalty at The Players was rescinded under a new rule outlining the use of high-definition replays to discover infractions.