Sorry I couldn't get to this earlier as I just got in as of 1250pm, just about an hour before Tiger will be teeing off (145pm) and I certainly have a problem with that.
If you missed it the rules committee at Augusta headed by Fred Ridley and consisting of rules officials from the USGA, PGA Tour, R&A, Asian Tour and the Masters decided to issue a 2 shot penalty to Tiger for his illegal drop on 15 yesterday, (I outlined the details in my earlier blog this morning)
I have just watched the entire press conference with Fred Ridley and in summation, Tiger broke a rule in ignorance, Fred Riley and his committee didn't think he had originally and allowed him to sign what in fact was a wrong score card, and allowed him to leave the grounds thinking all was well, then changed their minds after another call at 10pm following a Tiger TV interview where he unknowingly admitted he had dropped inappropriately, but when they met with Tiger this morning at 8am they decided to give him a 2 shot penalty, but said it would be grossly unfair to DQ him after their original decision.
Here are the details..He broke rule 26, which governs drops, but after 2 different calls to the club from TV viewers, and a meeting between themselves and Tiger this morning they chose to invoke rule 33 inserted into the rulebook in 2011 after Paddy Harrington nudged his ball forward by a dimple or so while marking it with a coin, finished his round, signed his card and was DQed afterward for that infraction after a TV viewer called in. It's casually known as the TV HD rule and it says a player can't be DQed because of it.
Bear with me a moment here so you know what happened in Tiger's case.
After the drop on 15 a viewer called the Masters Club to complain about where he dropped the ball which was wrong. They reviewed the drop and decided Tiger had made no infraction...
Wrong and mistake #1...
Tiger signed, practised, did an interview with ESPN and went home. Call number 2 from a TV viewer to the Masters club from a different viewer at around 10pm, notifying them that Tiger in that ESPN interview admitted he dropped the ball 2 yards further back to give him a perfect distance to play the same shot in that had hit the pin in the first place.
Following that call they reviewed the tape of the drop again, changed their minds when they realized he just admitted on an interview aired around the world that he improved his lie, and in doing so he clearly was unaware that he had broken any rule.... or why would he have admitted to it ..
After meeting with Tiger this morning at 8am, they all agreed he had broken rule 26, and he clearly did but they invoked the rule 33-7 rather than DQ him for signing the wrong scorecard because they had let him go home and took responsibility for their original decision that he had complied with the rules.
First let me say Tiger absolutely did not try and cheat, that's stupid, he doesn't need to and the world was watching. Secondly the Rules Committee got it wrong twice in my opinion, and that's another story.
However in these cases ignorance is not bliss. A player not knowing a rule does not excuse you from paying the appropriate penalty from breaking it.
Tiger has decided, protected by rule 33-7 to go ahead and play, now at -1 instead of -3, just 5 shots off the lead.
That is wrong, wrong wrong...he is losing much more that a golf tournament by playing and I know some would say he did a pretty good job losing his public persona in the last two years..
It's more than that, it's the worst thing a golfer can risk losing.. his integrity..
If he goes on to win it will always be with the caveat's.."He cheated,.. he caught a break because he's Tiger, ...the Master's just doing what they want.... CBS pulled some strings,... how come they nailed a 14 year old kid with a penalty for slow play when the whole field was slow.."
And what if he does win and goes on to get #19 and beat Jack's 18, one of golf's holy grails and history looks back and says" yeah but he should never been allowed to play that '13 Masters".
Now all we are talking about is Tiger and the committee ruling and his decision to play..Not all the great stories out there..
It's wrong, wrong , wrong... Tiger, as nearly all his peers interviewed today have said, should have WD and taken the high road, taken a leadership role even though he unknowingly broke the rule and the Committee, indeed their Chair Fred Ridley missed the call.
Golf at these levels is littered with stories of guys who have had to WD or been DQ'ed simply because they did not know they were mistaken.. Tiger has caught a break here because he and the Rules Committee both messed up..
He just can't win now, even if he does..
BryanA
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