Scottie Scheffler found himself in controversy during the final round of The Open. On the par-5 17th hole, he received a free drop because his ball went into an area deemed a temporary immovable obstruction (TIO). After the round, Scheffler revealed that he had asked officials to stop searching for his ball, allowing him to take relief from a more favorable position. While Scheffler stayed within the Rules of Golf, Fried Egg Golf’s Andy Johnson argued that the decision wasn’t in keeping with the spirit of the game.
“As someone watching it, it doesn’t feel right to demand people to stop looking for your ball because if you find your ball, you drop in a much worse place,” Johnson said in today’s episode. “To me, it just doesn’t feel really in the spirit of the game with how it all unfolded, where he got to drop in an area that frankly he did not hit a shot anywhere near. It basically gave him the chance to attempt a heroic shot, and then get the reward if he just laid up.
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“The spirit of the game has always been the players are gentlemen. But with how high the stakes are, I just thought that was a little, while completely by the rules, it was not in the spirit of competition and really the game and protecting the field. [It] tells me he knew where the ball was, and everybody knew where it was and where he should be dropping, but because it wasn’t found, it doesn’t make any sense to me.”
During the final round of the 2026 Open at Royal Birkdale, Scottie Scheffler hit his second shot on the 17th hole into a hospitality unit to the left of the green, which was classified as a TIO. Under golf rules for TIO (Model Local Rule F-23), officials determined the ball was lost within the obstruction.
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This granted Scheffler free relief without penalty. So, he dropped on the course side in a much better lie. And from there, he hit a solid shot that set up a birdie putt, and made it. TIO, of course, is a temporary structure or installation at a golf tournament from which players can get free relief if their ball is lost in, on, or affected by it.
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After the round, finishing T4, Scottie Scheffler confessed that his caddie, Ted Scott, had seen where the ball dropped. So, they started looking for it, but he realized that if they found the ball, he would have to take the shot from an unfavorable position. Thus, he asked officials to stop searching for the ball, and took point-of-entry TIO relief.
This quickly became controversial as fans criticized both the World No. 1 and the R&A for allowing it. Michael Kim, who failed to make the cut at The Open, claimed on X that he was “dumbfounded” by the TIO relief given to Scheffler. However, this isn’t the first time the World No. 1 has received TIO relief.
Scheffler confessed that he received another TIO relief during The CJ Cup at Byron Nelson earlier this year. Notably, his case is somewhat similar to Jordan Spieth’s TIO relief in 2017. Unlike Scottie Scheffler, however, Spieth went on to win the Open Championship. That being said, Scheffler himself wasn’t proud of using the relief even though it’s allowed in the rules. But the golf community appears even more upset.
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