Despite living in underground communities, ants are not considered by the PGA Tour to be burrowing animals. That is the lesson professional golfer Bubba Watson recently learned during the recent PGA Championship.
At hole No. 5, Watson's ball came to rest on an anthill and he called a rules official over to get a ruling on whether he could move it. Watson was arguing that ants count as burrowing animals, and therefore he was entitled to a drop.
CBS Sports reported on the rule in question:
Rule 25-1: An abnormal ground condition is casual water, ground under repair or a hole, cast or runway made by a burrowing animal, a reptile or a bird.
Except when the ball is in a water hazard, relief without penalty is available from immovable obstructions and abnormal ground conditions when the condition physically interferes with the lie of the ball, your stance or your swing. You may lift the ball and drop it within one club-length of the nearest point of relief, but not nearer the hole than the nearest point of relief.
The rules official wasn't buying it, and it led to this hilarious exchange between Watson and the rules official about what is and isn't a burrowing animal.
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