The good news: Despite a blunder and an almost inconceivable lapse on the part of the rules committee at the Presidents Cup, Phil Mickelson and Zach Johnson managed to halve their match with Jason Day and Adam Scott.

The bad news: Well, pretty much everything that happened on the seventh hole for the U.S. side.

All square with Jason Day and Adam Scott in their fourball match, Phil Mickelson decided to put a firmer golf ball in play on the par-five seventh hole, apparently believing it would give him a better chance of reaching the green in two.

Mickelson, reportedly, thought he was in the clear as there is no one-ball rule in Ryder Cup competition when the event is held in the U.S. Thus, Lefty seems to have assumed similar standards applied to Presidents Cup competitions outside of the U.S.

Unfortunately, he was wong.

In Presidents Cup play, the one-ball rule is in effect. Thus, a player cannot switch the type of ball he is playing during a round.

Here’s some clarification on the rule from the USGA’s Decisions in the Rules of Golf.

Rule 15-1: Changing golf balls during a hole or a stipulated round: “…When changing balls, the player is permitted to substitute a ball of another brand or type unless the Committee has adopted the One Ball Condition of Competition (see Appendix I; Part C; Section 1c). This optional condition (usually referred to as ‘The One Ball Rule’) is generally adopted only in events that are limited to professional golfers or highly-skilled amateur golfers. Generally, this condition of competition is not adopted in club-level competitions.”

“I tried to put a firmer ball in play,” Mickelson said of the decision. “As we were walking down after I did it, I was sure there was no one ball rule, I was there with captain Haas and said ‘Will you just check?’ We’ve never really had it and I didn’t think much about it. But it’s my responsibility to know that.

What they found out, additionally, was that the penalty for such an offence is a “one hole adjustment” i.e. Mickelson and Johnson immediately went from all-square to one-down

Unfortunately, again, it was at this point a secondary blunder occurred.

A rules official incorrectly told Mickelson he was disqualified from the hole, so Phil picked up, leaving Johnson against Day/Scott for the hole. Day won the hole and secured another point, which put Mickelson/Johnson two-down.

The Match Committee got it wrong. As USA Today’s Steve Dimeglio explained, “In fact, Mickelson could have actually played out the hole – either with the wrong ball or after putting the correct ball back into play – and tied Day with a birdie of his own, which then would have meant the Americans would have lost the hole just once because of his breech of the rules.”

And under Decision 34-2/6 of the Rules of Golf, there’s no way to rectify the error. According to a Committee statement, “Once any player in the match plays a subsequent stroke allowing a correction could potentially undermine the strategy already employed by both sides in the match in completing the hole.”

“We’ve never had a one-ball rule that I can think of in these events, or at least that I was aware of. But it’s never been an issue, either. Obviously as a player, you need to know that. You need to know the rules and if you have a question, you do it beforehand.”

It doesn’t appear the blunder will haunt Mickelson, as he offered up a classic FIGJAM quote post-match: “I feel like we spotted the Internationals’ best team two holes and they still couldn’t beat us. Just saying.”