Wild rules break at LIV Q-school bails out pro in decisive moment

If you were trying to identify the Next Big Thing in 2015, Ollie Schniederjans would have been on your short list.

Schniederjans was the full package: two time All-American at Georgia Tech, 41-week run atop the World Amateur Golf Ranking and undaunted by the big moment. In his first two majors starts — both as an amateur in 2015 — he finished 42nd at the U.S. Open and 12th at the Open Championship. Schniederjans was seemingly on his way.

Until he wasn’t.

After turning pro in 2015 and starting his career on the Korn Ferry Tour, Schniederjans climbed to as high as 77th in his world, but nagging injuries quickly derailed him. Back and shoulder pain. A sore neck. Surgeries on both his hips. In 2022 and ’23, Schniederjans was able to make just 10 Korn Ferry starts. This year he played in 16 events but made just eight cuts, good for only $85,403.

All of which helps explain why this week Schniederjans is playing golf halfway across the world on a quest to land a new home with LIV Golf, where purses are $25 million and last season only seven players made less than $2 million.

Joining Schniederjans at the LIV Golf Promotions event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, were 92 other hopefuls, only one of whom — the winner of the 72-hole event — will earn entrée to LIV for the 2025 season (though the top 10 finishers, including ties, will earn full exemptions into the Asian Tour’s 2025 International Series). We say were because after Friday’s second round at Riyadh Golf Club, the field was whittled down to 20 golfers who will play 36 holes on Saturday to determine the champion.

Trimming a field down to a round number typically requires a playoff, and this event was no exception. On Friday, six entrants — Schniederjans among them — finished 36 holes tied for 20th at three under, meaning a sudden-death playoff was necessary to determine which one of those players would advance.

When Schniederjans and MJ Maguire were the only players to birdie the first playoff hole — the 396-yard par-4 18th — the 6-for-1 playoff quickly became 2-for-1, which is how it stayed when Schniederjans and Maguire replayed 18 and made matching birdies again. On their third go-around on the home hole (fourth including regulation), Maguire found the fairway, but Schniederjans did not; after carrying the water, his ball settled into a sandy waste area roughly 30 yards short and right of the green. His lie looked wicked — his ball nestled up against the crusty collar of rough on the far side of the sand — and it was wicked, especially given the magnitude of the approach shot Schniederjans was facing.

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Bad break? Nope, quite the opposite, actually, because Schniederjans was about to get free relief from an unusual rule.  

Thanks to a local rule instituted by LIV this week to prevent players from hurting themselves when faced with precarious shots like this one, Schniederjans was permitted to identify his nearest point of relief — in this case, the light rough outside the waste area — and drop his ball within a club-length of that spot.  

“It’s a short enough shot that he wouldn’t really hurt himself, but you can’t take that into account when you’re designing the local rules,” LIV Golf analyst Jerry Foltz said on the broadcast.

Su-Ann Heng, LIV’s on-course reporter, called the ruling “a huge break,” later adding of the drop, “MJ is looking pretty closely at it, too.”

Schniederjans’ break got even better when during his drop procedure, his ball twice rolled out of the relief area, meaning he was permitted to place his ball on a perfect lie.

“Every once in a while, the rules work to your advantage,” Foltz said.

To which Heng said: “If you’re MJ, though, I’m sure you’re a little bit disappointed.”

Here, by way of a statement, is how LIV explained the ruling: “Ollie Schniederjans’s tee shot came to rest against the earthen wall that separates the dessert and rough. The Model Local Rule that had been adopted for the week is as follows: ABNORMAL COURSE CONDITIONS / IMMOVABLE OBSTRUCTIONS – Rule: 16.1, Earthen Walls: Between the grass and dessert is ground under repair if the ball touches or when it interferes with the player’s area of intend swing, free relief is available under Rule 16.1, but interference does not exist if the earthen wall interferes only with the players stance. Schniederjans took his nearest point of complete relief from the wall and dropped correctly within 1 club-length, remaining in the general area.”

After placing his ball, Schniederjans didn’t catch his approach as cleanly as he would have liked, leaving himself about 10 feet for birdie. Maguire’s attempt from the middle of the fairway also left little to be desired as it ran 20 feet by the hole from where he failed to make 3. Then it was Schniederjans’ turn: hole the putt and advance to Saturday’s 36-hole finale, or miss it and play a fourth playoff hole. As Schniederjans’ ball rolled toward the cup, there was never a doubt. Bingo.

Asked about the ruling after the round, Schniederjans said, “I was assuming I was getting relief, but I hadn’t been in that spot all week. That was obviously a great break.”

Of course, for Schniederjans, there is still much work to be done. Thirty-six holes and 19 players still stand between him and a chance to prove himself in LIV’s big-money showdowns in 2025. But that chance is something Schniederjans desperately wants.

“I’ve been through a lot,” he said Friday evening as dusk settled over Riyadh Golf Club. “I want to play against the best players in the world again. I think I’m coming back to I’m fully healthy. I just want to prove myself again and get that opportunity.”