SOUTHPORT, England _ Jon Rahm was involved in a thorny rules situation that briefly cost him two strokes.
Walking up to his ball on No. 17, the Spaniard noticed a vine lying nearby that he wanted to move. Thinking the plant was dead, he pulled it away. That's when another player, Lee Westwood, came over and noticed that the piece of plant was still connected to the ground.
"I got there and I thought it was a loose impediment because it looked dead, so I just moved it to the side," Rahm said. "And that's when Lee came and he realized it was attached."
The two summoned a rules official who asked Rahm if he had improved his lie, a two-shot penalty. Rahm insisted he had not.
Instead of clearing Rahm on the spot, the official tentatively assessed a two-shot penalty, with the caveat that the final decision would be made after the round. Rahm, who had been at par, finished his round at two over.
In the scoring trailer, after talking to the players, the chief referee decided not to assess a penalty.
"Lee explained his facts, I explained what happened from my point of view and they made the call," Rahm said.
