Sometimes I wonder wether golf is ruled by a 15,000 page book, or Johnny Depp’s Mom in Blow. Remember her? Just ask 14-year old phenom Tianlang Guan, who was became the first player since 1995 to be penalized for slow play. Enter Tiger Woods at Augusta. After shooting a 71 on Friday, Tiger addressed the rather remarkable play where he nailed the pin and the ball inexplicably ended up in the water. If you haven’t seen it, please, watch it first. Then, rather unceremoniously, he took a drop and bogeyed the hole, and routinely recounted it to reporters afterward:
“I went back to where I played it from, but went two yards further back and I tried to take two yards off the shot of what I felt I hit and that should land me short of the flag and not have it either hit the flag or skip over the back. I felt that was going to be the right decision to take off four (yards) right there. And I did. It worked out perfectly.”
Nothing out of the ordinary, right? WRONG! Augusta, functioning like the Eye of Sauron, sees everything. What it misses, golf dorks at home apparently call the historic country club and notify them about, which, apparently, is what happened in this instance. The gist: when you take your drop after putting one in the drink, you have 3 options. Hit it from the same spot, hit it from a drop zone, or hit it from a spot in line with the flag from where the ball went into the water.
By all initial accounts, including that of Augusta National during said round, Tiger opted to just reshoot it. And he did. Then he went all mea culpa and told reporters that he actually took his second approach shot “two yards further back,” which is, ahem, illegal. Only in golf do they punish you for backing up. Here’s the official statement:
“Yesterday afternoon, the Rules Committee was made aware of a possible Rules violation that involved a drop by Tiger Woods on the 15th hole.
In preparation for his fifth shot, the player dropped his ball in close proximity to where he had played his third shot in apparent conformance with Rule 26. After being prompted by a television viewer, the Rules Committee reviewed a video of the shot while he was playing the 18th hole. At that moment and based on that evidence, the Committee determined he had complied with the rules.
After he signed his scorecard, and in a television interview subsequent to the round, the player stated that he played further from the point than where he had played his third shot. Such action would constitute playing from the wrong place.
The subsequent information provided by the player’s interview after he had completed play warranted further review and discussion with him this morning. After meeting with the player, it was determined that he had violated Rule 26, and he was assessed a two stroke penalty. The penalty of disqualification was waived by the Committee under Rule 33 as the committee had previously reviewed the information and made its initial determination prior to the finish of the player’s round.”
Whether they failed to disqualify him because they had already made a ruling prior, or because he’s the only reason people watch golf, we will never really know. What we can assume, is that it’s likely that golf’s silly little tattle tale book of technicalities isn’t quite as important as Nielsen’s expensive book of TV ratings. Consider this: according to SBNation, last year ratings dropped 22% after Tiger dropped out of contention, as compared to his late push two years ago. That being said, other golfers are pissed that the rules don’t apply to Tiger, despite relying on a ad-revenue-based-paycheck, the lion’s share derived from Tiger Woods’ notoriety. PGA pro Kyle Thompson can be seen on twitter nibbling on the hand that feeds him.
If Tiger didn’t say in interview that he dropped it 2 yards back he would be fine. It could be chalked up to a mistake…#dairyqueen
— Kyle Thompson (@KyleThompsonPGA) April 13, 2013
I guess Tiger is BIGGER than golf. Any other person in the world gets DQ’d. Gotta keep those TV ratings going right?
— Kyle Thompson (@KyleThompsonPGA) April 13, 2013
Tiger should consult @blaynebarberau on what he should do. Blayne DQ’d himself a week after Qschool for a possible violation.
— Kyle Thompson (@KyleThompsonPGA) April 13, 2013
Haters gonna hater, ballers gonna ball. Tiger will not disqualify himself, like some people are asking. He tees off Saturday at 1:45EST.
H/T YahooSports














