Annoyed golf fans demand rule change following controversial moment after Ben Griffin wins the Charles Schwab Challenge

Ben Griffin won the Charles Schwab Challenge, but he didn’t make things easy on himself down the stretch at Colonial Country Club.

Griffin earned his second PGA Tour win with his victory at Colonial.

The 29-year-old dug in deep on what was a really difficult afternoon in Fort Worth, Texas, during the final round of the Charles Schwab Challenge.

Griffin recently opened up on how life-changing his Zurich Classic of New Orleans win was, while playing alongside Andrew Novak.

And now he has reached a whole new level entirely, by winning his first PGA Tour event when playing his own ball.

Griffin shot a really solid final round of 71 to win by one shot from Matti Schmid, with the wind gusting above 30 mph in Fort Worth at times.

However, he got a huge bit of fortune on his back nine on Sunday.

Golf fans demand rule change after Ben Griffin controversy at the Charles Schwab Challenge

Griffin certainly rode his luck at Colonial during the final round.

After a wild hook off the tee on the 14th hole on Sunday, Griffin got a free ‘line of sight’ drop, with an advertising sign supposedly in his way.

The PGA Tour explained the reasoning behind Griffin’s free drop:

“We call this line of sight relief for a temporary moveable obstruction. It is free relief, what you do is you measure on your equidistant arch from where the ball was laying, go in line with the outer limits of that temporary moveable structure which is the 18 sign, in line with the flag stick. He gets to drop in the second club length which gets him luckily away from this tree.“

However, golf fans were not happy one little bit, and demanded change.

Griffin made a four in the end, after holing a 12-foot par putt, as he turned a potential double bogey into a par.

One golf fan said, “I don’t care what anyone says, the pros have it easier. I would gain a few strokes per round from stuff like this and the perfect greens.“

Whilst another said, “He explained why this rule is so stupid and lets players cheat. How come these sissies get to place their ball EVERY TIME. What a joke.“

Meanwhile, a third golf fan said, “Play it as it lies like everyone else has to. I could play on tour with all those rules.“

A fourth fan suggested that PGA Tour pros don’t get punished as severely as they should for missing fairways, “So sick of free drops. Hit the fairway or pay the price.“

Then a fifth golf fan simply said, “What a joke.“

A sixth PGA Tour fan said, “That sign is not in the way!“

The bottom line here is that PGA Tour players definitely use the rules to their advantage.

However, the main thing in their defence is the fact that the rules are the same for every player.

Three golf rules that need to change

Numerous rules need to change in order to make the game fairer.

The main one is that a free drop should be given when a player’s ball lands in a divot in the fairway. However, the only problem with this is that it would be left way too open to interpretation.

Next up, pace of play is something that really needs to be tackled. Fines are not enough to prevent it, so stricter rules should be brought in, whereby penalty strokes are handed out for those who flout slow play rules.

And finally, the stroke and distance rule for balls hit out of bounds is way too harsh.

If a ball is blasted out of bounds, it should be a case of two off the tee, rather than three. The current rule is far too punishing.

One rule that won’t be changing though, is the line of sight one, as much as some golf fans may not like it.