My understanding is that a viewer did call this in. Someone saw that Tiger had placed the ball I think a couple of yards behind his original mark. The Masters officials reviewed the tape while Tiger was playing the 18th hole, and determined that Tiger had not broken any rule. Based on this Tiger signed his card. After the initial ruling and signing of the card, Tiger said in ESPN post interview that he had decided to move the ball back from the original mark. Nobody on the telecast (including Nick Faldo) commented on a rules violation after the interview. But the Masters people did notice it, re-investigated, and this morning decided that it was a violation. The new rule, changed 2 years ago, was designed specifically for this situation - when a player signs a card that is later determined to have been inaccurate, and it is also determined that he did not and could not have reasonably known that it was inaccurate.
The masses arguing that anyone else but Tiger would have been disqualified are simply wrong. Nobody would have been disqualified. But there is a different question, which is, should Tiger withdraw? It was a brutal situation, and in the heat of the moment he did not perceive what he was doing as a rule violation, but it clearly was. Even though the rules do not mandate a DQ, many professional golfers would probably withdraw in respect to the spirite of the game. Nobody cares more about winning the Masters than Tiger, but winning under these circumstances is unlikely to add much to his legacy, and if he needs this win to tie Jack, it will always have an asterisk by it for many. What I am waiting for Noon (PT) to find out is to see whether Tiger voluntarily withdraws - how swing coach tweeted that he still has not decided for sure. I do agree that CBS has long been functioning as the PR arm of the Masters, and it is disgusting. If it were not for Tiger I would boycott the damn thing. But in this case I think the Masters made the right decisions in both controversial issues yesterday - the kid missed his second time mark substantially, and what makes his making of the cut so fantastic is that he did it following all of the rules that everyone else has - nothing special was done for him because he is in 8th grade and his mommy packed his PB&J for lunch. Similarly, they treated Tiger the way they would have treated the lowest qualifier (well, almost everyone who plays the Masters is a fairly notable golfer). On Sat, Apr 13, 2013 at 8:12 AM, Joe Hass <[email protected]> wrote: > Yesterday Tiger Woods on the 15th hole at the Masters hit > an unbelievable shot: the ball hit the flag stick, but with enough force > that it proceeded to roll back into the pond in front of the Green. Woods > chose to take a drop from the original spot (as the rules allow). But in > the post-match interview (remember this), he admitted that the failed to > make the drop as close as he could to the original spot. This is a > violation of the rules of golf and has a two-stroke penalty attached to it. > Since Woods failed to include the strokes on his signed scorecard, he > signed an incorrect scorecard with a score that is lower than his actual > score, for which the penalty is a disqualification. > > This morning, Augusta National announced that Tiger would simply be > allowed to add the two-stroke penalty to his score and would not be > disqualified. They cited a 2011 rule interpretation change introduced by > the USGA and R&A (the two governing bodies of golf) that allowed for a > disqualification penalty to not be assessed if the player had no reasonable > knowledge that a penalty occurred. This was in response to a number of > situations where a TV viewer called tournament officials to report a > violation that was only visible due to a TV broadcast. The problem is that > no one called this in: Woods himself admitted he broke the rules. > > This happened the same day that the youngest entrant in Masters history, > Tianlang > Guan, was hit with a one-shot penalty for slow play: the first time > anyone has enforced that call at a major in nine years. The general feel > after that was that it a dick move: it was a violation, but given that the > PGA has a notorious history of slow play and not aggressively enforcing the > rule, to decide to enforce it on a 14 year old at his first major trying to > make the cut on a windy day at arguably the toughest golf course in the > world was unnecessary. > > Sir Nick Faldo (who works the 18th with Jim Nantz) just went on the Golf > Channel and absolutely destroyed Augusta National for this decision, > calling it "dreadful", noting that Tiger admitted it he deliberately moved, > and called for Woods to withdraw. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's > unanimous, but there's an overwhelming opinion that this was a horrifically > bad decision by Augusta National. > > Unrelated to this, Bob Costas went on Dan Patrick's show yesterday and > noted that he would likely only make it through one Masters broadcast (not > that he'd ever get the chance to as an employee of NBC) because he feels > CBS has been so subservient to Augusta National, he'd feel obligated at > some point to point this out (see > http://deadspin.com/bob-costas-slams-cbs-and-jim-nantz-over-gutless-masters-472663580 > ). > > So with all this on the table... > > We know CBS treats the Masters and Augusta National with kid gloves (go > ask Jack Whitaker and Gary McCord from the comfort of their couches). We > know they ignore *everything* that happens outside the ropes. But this is a > huge issue that involves the number one player in the world and the most > famous golfer of his day if not all time. It happened within the ropes. How > will CBS deal with this? > > We'll have to wait until 3:00 to find out. > > -- > -- > TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "TV or Not TV" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected] > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > > -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
