McDowell Boots Bag After New 2019 Rule Ruins Round

G-Mac's ball on the 18th hole was found 12 seconds after the three minute mark

McDowell Boots Bag After New 2019 Rule Ruins Round

G-Mac's ball on the 18th hole was found 12 seconds after the three minute mark

McDowell Boots Bag After New 2019 Rule Ruins Round

This isn't last year however, and unfortunately for Graeme McDowell he wasn't able to find his ball within the new three minute time frame.

"To conduct myself as well as I did all day and play as well as I did all day, and then to finish like that was -- it hurts, you know, it hurts a lot. But it's golf. It's golf.

"I got to not let this spoil my week, because it could easily spoil my week. I feel like all the air has been let out of the sails plus some. The ship feels like it's sinking. It's not air out of the sails, it's everything."

"I thought it was a hell of a rule there until about 12 minutes ago," he said of the new three minute ball search rule.

"It's amazing, 5 minutes feels like a long time when you're looking for a ball. And 3 minutes feels like no time at all.

"We had 30 people over there looking for that thing. 12 seconds after the 3 minutes was up we found it. We found my ball.

"It was a lie where I could have gotten it in the fairway. It wasn't a great lie. Unfortunately it was 10 yards right of where I thought it was. For some reason, no one saw it and the marshals didn't get an eye on it."

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Elliott Heath
News Editor

Elliott Heath is our News Editor and has been with Golf Monthly since early 2016 after graduating with a degree in Sports Journalism. He covered the 2022 and 2025 Masters from Augusta National and was there by the 18th green to watch Rory McIlroy complete the career grand slam. He has also covered five Open Championships on-site including the 150th at St Andrews.