When players stepped onto the soggy fairways at Quail Hollow for the opening round of the PGA Championship, many expected some leniency after a week of heavy rain in North Carolina.
Instead, they were met with a surprise — and not the good kind.
Despite more than five inches of rainfall leading up to Thursday, officials from the PGA of America decided not to allow preferred lies, commonly known as “lift, clean, and place.”
That ruling quickly stirred up anger among some of the world’s top golfers, including Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele, who believe the decision introduced too much unpredictability into an already challenging tournament.
Mud-Covered Golf Balls Create Chaos on the Fairway
With the course still soft and soaked, balls landing in the fairway were often caked in mud — a frustrating situation for pros used to precision.
This issue came to a head on the 16th hole, where both Scheffler and Schauffele misfired their approach shots into the water and walked away with double bogeys.
It wasn’t about bad swings, they argued — it was the mud.
Scheffler, currently ranked No. 1 in the world, managed to rally and post a 69, but he didn’t hold back in criticizing the decision.
“I get the ‘play it as it lies’ mindset,” he said, “but people don’t always understand what it’s like spending your whole life perfecting your control over the golf ball — only for that to be undone by a bit of mud.”
Scheffler Says Luck Shouldn’t Decide a Major Championship
For Scheffler, it wasn’t just about one shot or one hole. It was about fairness.
“There’s already enough luck in a 72-hole tournament,” he explained.
“I want to play on a course that gives us the purest and fairest test — not one where random mud splatter can cost you two shots.”
He admitted the conditions rattled him at first but said he was proud of how he kept his composure. “I stayed in it and posted a score,” he said.
“But still — that situation could have unraveled someone’s entire round.”
Schauffele Says Conditions Left Players Guessing
Xander Schauffele, the defending champion, also didn’t mince words.
After shooting an even-par 72, he said the locker room vibe was likely tense with frustration.
“Guys are not happy,” he admitted. “The course is immaculate, but when your ball ends up with mud even after a perfect drive, it becomes a total guessing game.”
Schauffele described how even when he got “lucky” with how the mud landed on his ball, it still forced him to adjust his approach shot strategy — estimating how much spin would be affected.
As the Course Dries, Players Expect the Mudball Mess to Get Worse
The worst part? According to Schauffele, the situation is likely to deteriorate.
As the course begins to dry out in the coming days, he said conditions might reach a “perfect cake zone” — not dry enough to keep balls clean, but just muddy enough to make them pick up debris during flight.
He floated a possible workaround — keeping tee shots lower — but admitted that doing so sacrifices valuable distance.
“It becomes a bit of a crapshoot,” he said with a shrug.