Without a key tweak to the laws of golf six years ago, Scottie Scheffler’s miracle save at Spyglass Hill would not have happened.
The world No. 1 made his return to the fairways at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am in California having missed the start of the 2025 PGA Tour season due to a freak accident suffered on Christmas Day.
But Scheffler, so long a model of frightening consistency, suffered a rare misstep on the par-five 18th hole at Spyglass.
The American drove his tee shot to the left, with the ball sailing wide of the fairway and settling onto the beach where it lay among some stones near the water.
Before he ventured to the beach to see where his ball had come to a stop, Scheffler was seen having a discussion with one of the officials.
Scheffler’s ball was found nestled among a pile of small rocks and he soon began moving some of them out of the way so he could make a clean shot.
Had Scheffler found himself in that same scenario before 2019, he would not have been able to clear the rocks.
But the United States Golf Association and the R&A made a tweak to the law regarding loose impediments that year.
The new rules granted players permission to move around any loose impediments on the course.
Prior to the rule change, players were restricted as to where they could move any loose items.
With the new rules in place, Scheffler was able to chip his way off the beach and back onto the fairway.
Three shots later, Scheffler breathed a sigh of relief having successfully putted for par.
Speaking after his round, Scheffler conceded he wouldn’t have been able to save his 18th hole had the rules regarding loose impediments remained the same.
“With the old rules I think I probably would have gone back to the tee just because of the way the rocks were around my ball and the unpredictability of not being able to get it up over the top,” Scheffler said.
“But to be able to move some rocks definitely made the shot easier.”
Scheffler added: “[If I hadn’t been able to remove the rocks], I don’t know if I would have been able to get my ball up over the rocks in front of me.
“I didn’t really take that good of a look at it. I would have assumed I probably wouldn’t have been able to get it up over the top.
“I think I would have probably tried to not hit it [if I hadn’t been able to move the rocks], because if I mess it up, I’m back still on the tee box hitting like my fourth shot.”
Thanks to his par on the final hole, Scheffler finished with a score of two-under in the second round and seven-under for the tournament.
Scheffler’s score has him just three strokes off a five-player tie for fourth but sits a whopping seven shots behind runaway leader Sepp Straka.
The Austrian finished seven-under in the first and second round to sit clear at the top of the leaderboard, with Australia’s Cam Davis and American Russell Henley tied for second on 11-under.