Thanks to the help of the club’s training, the two-time winner faces a violation of the rules

The coaching help turned golf seemed to be working well for Minjee Lee.

But it was still a golf club.

And because it was, it led to a violation of the rules during Saturday’s third round of the Annika tournament, news first reported by Goflweek’s Beth Ann Nichols (whose story you can read in full here.). Lee, a two-time champion and 10-time winner overall, had put a club in his bag while playing the first hole at Pelican Golf Club – and its insertion gave him one more club than the 14 allowed under the rules, resulting in a two-shot penalty for the hole.

Remarkably, the offense was only two shots. According to Nichols’ story, Lee found the club before teeing off on the 2nd hole and avoided the additional penalty – even though the number of shots a player can be penalized under the rule is four. (Additional use of the club is specified under Rule 4.1b (1) and penalties are specified in Rule 4.1b (4).)

From there, Lee played three-under par golf over his final 17 holes, finishing with a 1-under 69, and on Sunday, shot a 70. This week, Lee is among 60 to play in the CME Group Tour Championship, the LPGA’s. end of season event.

Has the violation occurred before? Of course, pros occasionally include extra clubs in their bag, although it seems rare that one is used as a swing aid.

The last well-publicized example of an extra-club violation came when PGA Tour professional Joel Dahmen played with an extra 4-iron during the first three holes of the first round of the Shriners Children’s Open. After the round, the speaker described the incident as follows:

“Bizarr-oh. It’s never happened to me before. I go with 15, 16 clubs. I think a lot of people here do according to conditions and lessons.

“You know, I’ve been going here for a long time and it’s never happened. I would like to blame Geno [his caddie, Geno Bonnalie]. That would be an easy thing to do. It’s not his fault, either. I played Tuesday and Wednesday out here. We didn’t see you there. It was an extra 4 iron, so I had two 4 irons in the bag.

“Why, I don’t know. I don’t know how it got there. It’s disgusting. I am also worried about the place I am in. Yes, we got to the 4 tee and I got water and went over my bag and saw the 4 iron that was in the wrong place and our stuff is always in the right place. It wasn’t in the right place.

“You know, you just want to be angry and you want to be angry about everything. At the same time, I continued to play golf, and I didn’t do a good job of that later.

“It’s hard to refocus. One pass if you take away the penalties, which is not very good here today. It’s frustrating, it’s frustrating, but if you play golf long enough, weird things will happen here. “

Editor’s note: To read the full story by Nichols of Golfweek, please click here.