Patience and listening to his playing partner appeared to pay off in a dramatic way for Lee Hodges at the PGA Championship – until it didn’t.

Hodges, 27, needed to sink about a 16-foot putt to save par-4 on No. 17 during a rain-drenched third round at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester on Saturday afternoon.

He struck the ball well and it appeared to be going in, only to see his ball hang on the lip at the top of the hole.

Hodges didn’t rush to the ball, hoping gravity would take over and do the final bit of the work for him.

Jordan Spieth can be heard on the broadcast telling him to wait because: “I think it’s gonna go.”

After about 35 seconds, the ball did get in the hole to the delight of a roaring crowd.

But it ultimately didn’t matter or count.

It actually cost Hodges.

Instead, the tournament’s rules committee assessed him a 1-stroke penalty because he had violated Rule 13.3a of the Rules of Golf.

It states a 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.

“If the ball does not fall into the hole in this waiting time: The ball is treated as being at rest,” the rule states. “If the ball then falls into the hole before it is played, the player has holed out with the previous stroke, but gets one penalty stroke added to the score for the hole.”

It led to Hodges, an Athens, Georgia native, to finish with a 5-over-75 for the round and 10-over for the tournament – well off the lead.