Bernhard Langer was clever with the rules. Then Tiger Woods impressed

The PNC Championship proved once again this weekend that it is a one-of-a-kind event among nationally televised golf tournaments. Parents compete with their children. Men play with women. A 13-year-old in the field together with an 89-year-old. Four sets of t-shirts in play. Thirty-six holes. Birdie-powered sprint to the finish. Good stuff all around.

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

In a scramble, each player hits a tee shot and then chooses the better of the two shots to be played next. The same applies to the third shot, where this pattern is repeated 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 neither team shot worse than eight-under; Langers eventually defeated Woods’ on the first playoff hole.

Scrambles are unique from traditional golf in another important way: When players decide which shots to play, they are permitted to place their balls within a 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 can also be picked up and placed within a club length, but typically must remain within the “same condition” – ie. in most matches, including at the PNC, tournament organizers do not allow players to move a ball from e.g. a fairway bunker.

Improvement However, is one a lie in one of those areas? That is another matter. There is nothing in the rules that prohibits such action, meaning that players have the power to remove their ball from e.g. a horrible fried egg lie and place it on a more manageable lie on top of the sand – again, assuming the new spot is within a club length of where the ball originally came to rest.

Just such a situation unfolded Sunday at PNC after the Langers – Bernhard and his son, Jason – teed off on the par-5 14th, after which they were tied for the lead at 24 under with Woods’ . After Jason banked his drive into the water up the left, Langers had no choice but to play Bernhard’s ball, which landed in what appeared to be a bunker on the left side of the fairway, but was actually deemed to be 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 ball. Recognizing that the small tower could in fact act as a tee for one of their shots, they jointly decided that it would make the most strategic sense for their best ball striker – Bernhard – to take advantage of the rules and place his ball on the mound.

Jason hit first, from a more challenging lie. He caught a fairway wood and popped his ball up the middle of the fairway but well off the green. Then Bernhard entered. Knowing he had the luxury of essentially teeing his ball and with only a small lip to carry, he made an aggressive club choice: driver.

“What are you thinking about this game?” announcer Dan Hicks said in an incredulous tone on the NBC broadcast.

“I’m loving every second of it, Dan,” said on-track reporter Jim “Bones” Mackay. “I think he believes because he can place the ball so nicely that 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 in front of 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 on the 4th.

It wasn’t long before a screen grab of Bernhard’s lying lie began going around on social mediawith no shortage of ill-informed observers scrutinizing the two-time Masters champion’s integrity. The point was that Bernhard had done nothing wrong. He and his son had simply taken advantage of the same rules available to the rest of the field.

On Monday morning, Bernhard acknowledged in a phone interview with GOLF.com that he had gotten “very lucky” with his lie, but even if he had had a less favorable lie, he said, he believes the outcome of his second shot would have been the same. In that hypothetical scenario, Bernhard said, he probably would have hit a fairway wood instead of a driver and come up just below the greenside bunker, which would still give him and Jason an excellent chance to get up and down. Bernhard added that there also happened to be a footprint near his ball, which, had he placed his ball on the edge of the footprint, would also have given him a similarly elevated lie.

After the round, PGA Tour Champions on-site chief rules official Joe Terry consulted with Langers and confirmed that Bernhard was “in full compliance with the rules of a match,” a Tour spokesman told GOLF.com via email. “Joe is 100 percent certain there was no foul play.”

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

“I thought he made it,” Bernhard said later. “When his ball was six feet from the hole, it should 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 clean putt. I benefited from seeing what his ball did. I played less break and mine was able to jump in there.”

That’s how it is with golf: When you take a break, you do well to take it.

GOLF senior writer Josh Sens contributed to this report.