Golf’s rules are precise, and in some cases, draconian.

During the opening day of Solheim Cup play on Saturday (September 4) at Inverness Golf Club in Ohio, the defending champions Europe ended the day with a 5½-2½ lead over the United States women. 

The lead would have been greater, however, had it not been for a controversial - but strictly correct - ruling in the top foursomes match between home pairing Nelly Korda and Ally Ewing, and Europe’s Madelene Sagström of Sweden and Nanna Koerstz Madsen of Denmark.

In a format that involves players within each pairing taking alternate shots, Korda’s concluding putt at the 13th curved tantalisingly close before coming to rest just alongside the hole. Judging by television images, it was maybe half an inch away from where it was intended to finish, and would have required the most cursory of touches to knock it in. But it certainly did not look as if it was overhanging the hole and likely to topple in.

Sagström, closest to the hole, strode over and picked the ball up before tossing it back to Korda and the foursome prepared to set off for the 14th hole.

At this point an official intervened. Sagström had not left the stationary ball for the statutory minimum of 10 seconds before picking it up, and was thus penalised under rule 13.3a, which meant the hole went to the American pairing.

 Korda and Ewing went on to win the afternoon fourball match by one hole.

"According to rule 13.3a," Golf Monthly writes. "If any part of a player’s ball overhangs the lip of the hole, the player is allowed a reasonable time to reach the hole and ten more seconds to wait to see whether the ball will fall into the hole. If the ball falls into the hole in this waiting time, the player has holed out with the previous stroke…

"Interestingly, if your opponent in match play or another player in stroke play, deliberately lifts or moves the player’s ball overhanging the hole before the waiting time has ended, then in match play, the player’s ball is treated as holed with the previous stroke."

So them’s the rules.

And as Golf Monthly adds, strange things can happen when balls come to rest close to or overhanging a hole. At the 1990 Open, Sam Torrance’s ball came to rest next to the hole for 26 seconds before dropping in. At the 2021 WGC-Match Play, Tony Finau’s putt took over 10 seconds before it dropped into the hole for a birdie – as the player approached for closer inspection.

According to the clip available on BBC Sport, the discussion between the main official and Sagström went like this:

"You picked up the ball before ten seconds…so she gets a three," said the official, holding up three fingers.

"Even though it was not, it was never going to go in though?" said Sagström.

"It doesn’t matter. It was not ten seconds. You had a reasonable time to get there and let it sit for 10 seconds."

"But it was never going to go in."

"Was it overhanging the hole?"

"No. No it wasn’t."

One report said that the main official had been told by another that the ball was "overhanging the hole." That looked at least debatable

The incident was the latest in a long and storied line of similar controversial moments when players transgressed rules that, in some eyes, appeared unnecessarily harsh.

Jaxon Brigman, who died last month aged 50, infamously missed out on qualifying for the Professional Golfers’ Association tour in 1999 after signing a scorecard for 66 when he had actually gone round in 65.

On the final day of Q-School at Doral’s Gold Course, Brigman made seven birdies and no bogeys to shoot 65. As Brigman would recall to reporter John Feinstein, playing partner Jay Hobby circled all of Brigman’s birdies on the official scorecard.

Brigman counted seven circles and signed – but unfortunately one of the circles was around a 4 that should have been a 3. He wasn’t disqualified, but he had to accept the 66 for which he signed. He also had to accept missing his tour card by that one shot.

When officials told Brigman what happened, he sobbed. "It was almost like a death in the family," he later said.

Roberto De Vicenzo, Argentina’s Open champion of 1967, came to grief in similar circumstances at the 1968 Masters, thus losing his place in a play-off.

During the final round, he made a birdie 3 at the par-4 17th hole and finished tied with Bob Goalby. But Tommy Aaron, who was playing with De Vicenzo and keeping his scorecard, mistakenly wrote down a “4” for the hole. De Vicenzo did not catch the error and signed the scorecard. Under the Rules of Golf, that meant he had to take that score on the card. Goalby then was the one-shot winner.

"What a stupid I am," De Vicenzo famously - and generously - responded.

At The Open Championship in 2001, Britain’s Ian Woosnam, the 1991 Masters champion, finished third despite suffering a two-stroke penalty for starting the final round with 15 clubs in his bag instead of the allowable maximum of 14.

While his caddie, Miles Byrne, was responsible for this error, Woosnam decided at the time not to dismiss him stating: "It is the biggest mistake he will make in his life. He won't do it again. He's a good caddie. I am not going to sack him. He's a good lad."

Two weeks later, however, Byrne was dismissed after failing to turn up on time at the tee having reportedly spent the night on the town…

Rules are rules. But players are not rules. They are humans. And the discussions on social media following the Ohio judgement contained numerous contributions from golfers and golf followers questioning Korda and Ewing’s acceptance of the 13^th hole win.

One tweet read: "Golfers everywhere ….ask yourself this: would you have accepted a hole in the circumstances that Korda and Ewing did?"

Kevin Mitchell, the highly respected sportswriter who has covered golf, among other things, for The Observer for many years, responded: "No. Nor would Jack Nicklaus. Sad to hear one of the Americans (Dottie Pepper?) say before the match they were going to play with ‘attitude and bratitude’."

The mention of Nicklaus is something of a touchpoint for the game given his gesture on the final hole of the final match of the very bitterly contested 1969 Ryder Cup golf match at Royal Birkdale between the United States and what was then just the Great Britain team.

Faced with a three-foot putt to draw the match, Britain’s Tony Jacklin, who had won the Open title two months earlier, was not given the chance to make his shot as Nicklaus, by that time one of the legends of the game, intervened to pick up his opponent’s marker as he retrieved his own ball from the hole into which he had just despatched it.

This guaranteed the match’s end with the scores level, at 16-16, for the first time in the history of the competition.

"I don’t think you would have missed that putt, but in these circumstances, I would never give you the opportunity," Nicklaus told his opponent.

The noble gesture was hugely disappreciated by some of Nicklaus’s teammates, most notably the team captain, Sam Snead. 

Snead, who died in 2002, would doubtless have supported Korda and Ewing’s acceptance of the hole. Rules are rules. But debates are debates...