ANA Inspiration : The wrong winner !

LPGA Tour ANA Inspiration final leaderboard http://www.lpga.com/tournaments/ana-inspiration/results

If you hadn't seen or heard, pro golf has another black eye to deal with in my opinion, after Lexi Thompson was unfairly penalized 4 shots on the 13th tee yesterday for an alleged rules infraction that happened the day before on the 17th green, that was called to the LPGA's attention via email from a TV viewer !!

She had marked a 1 foot putt with a coin, then replaced her ball less than an inch from the coin before tapping in. After the viewer emailed the LPGA on Sunday, they studied the incident in super slow-mo before informing Thompson she was given two stroke penalties for incorrect ball placement and for signing an incorrect scorecard.

She was cruising to her 2nd major with a 3 shot lead when Sue Witters from the LPGA laid the news on her as they walked to the 13th tee, dropping her a shot out of the lead.

Remarkably she gathered herself and birdied 3 of the final six holes to get back into the lead shared by 5 players at one point and dramatically left a winning eagle putt an inch short on the final hole.

She lost the playoff to So Yeon Ryu who had a fine closing 68 and I'm sure with a guilty heart accepted the trophy moments later.

So this goes down as the one that was taken from Lexi Thompson rather than the one that Ryu won.

Reaction from the other pros including Tiger was unanimous in its criticism of the ruling.

Here's how I see it: Last year the rules were changed regarding the signing of an incorrect scorecard. Lexi would have been disqualified. They didn't change the rule enough to cover what happened yesterday.

This infraction was completely unintentional, minor, trivial with no intent to improve the players lie or position, In other words she didn't cheat, that's key.

For the love of the game you can't allow this to happen.  If the referee, other players, the crowd and everyone else watching didn't see anything questionable, then play must go on.

You cannot call a player on it a day later in the middle of their round, you cannot !

The USGA should have learned from Dustin Johnson winning the US Open at Oakmont last summer despite not knowing his score for the last seven holes when an official told him his ball had moved slightly when he was lining up a putt on the 5th, and his score was under review !

So the upshot is that today So Yeon Ryu has to deal with the fact she shouldn't have won, forever. Lexi is crushed, rules official Sue Witter and her colleagues are sick, and as importantly the fans are either just laughing or outraged at the LPGA, USGA and the game itself and none of the above is good, or right.

Even little boys and girls watching and learning the great life lessons of fair play and sportsmanship that golf instills upon us could see that this incident was not cheating and handled inappropriately under the current interpretation of the rules.

The bottom line is the ANA Inspiration has the wrong winner.

Bryan Angus