The bizarre rule Paul Casey was questioned about on his way to winning the 2019 European Open

One of the strangest rules violations very nearly took place during the second round of the 2019 Porsche European Open when Paul Casey holed an eight-foot putt.

Casey secured his 14th victory on the European Tour that week in Germany. The Englishman finished one shot clear of a handful of players, including Robert MacIntyre.

However, one putt during the second round could have landed him in some bother after replays had shown that his ball had rolled over a bug on the green.

Casey was completely unaware that the bug had been on his line. It turns out if he had known it was there and hit it, he would have been forced to re-hit the putt as it is considered an animal.

How Paul Casey reacted to strange incident at the 2019 Porsche European Open

It was while the five-time Ryder Cup star was in scoring after his round of 73 that he was informed of the potential violation. However, Casey was cleared of any wrongdoing once he confirmed that he did not realise that the bug had been on his line and was hit by his ball.

He went on to speak to the media about the bizarre incident.

"I putted the ball, when I looked up the ball was going at the hole, just crept in left edge," he said.

"And he's [the rules official] just showed me the video, it actually ran straight over the poor bug, hopefully I didn't hurt him.

"If you knowingly hit an animal, and a bug is considered an animal, during the course of a stroke certainly on the putting green, you have to replay it.

"I didn't knowingly hit it, so I'm alright but yeah almost a rules infraction and I had no clue."

What Casey would not have realised at the time was how costly the incident could have been had the circumstances been ever so slightly different.

Casey went into the final round at Winsen one shot adrift of the lead. However, a flawless round of 66 on Sunday saw him win the title.

It was actually his first win on the European Tour in nearly five years.

Given that Casey is one of those exceptionally talented players without a major victory during his career, the 2019 Porsche European Open may well go down as one of the more memorable wins he has had simply due to the events of that second round.