Us TV hammering him. Flagrant violation they say, cheating is not a lart of golf, a clear disqualification.

They were never going to kick tiger. He's too big

It's not a case of being too big. The rules state there can be some discretion if the offence is deemed to be accidental rather than intentional.

unbelievable if this is confirmed. as far as i can see, the rules are quite clear on this. if tiger is given a 2 shot penalty for something he did in the round, then he shot a 73 yesterday. he signed for a 71. so that is an automatic DQ.

you can argue that isnt the best way to handle a situation like this, and i would agree with you. but the rules dont allow for wiggle room, which is why we have seen players DQd from tournements where people have seen balls move during television coverage that the players havent seen.

they will create an absurd precedent if they let this go.

Like I said, on TV here they've also highlighted a further rule speaking about the discretion of the officials if deemed to be an unintentional breech. There probably is something to do with it being woods that's helped make the decision,

It's interesting to see the difference in opinions concerning this incident and the slow play issue with the Chinese kid yesterday. I'm not sure how that was reacted to on this thread, but on radio and TV they called that penalty harsh, but woods not harsh enough,

comment by Fifty Years of Hurt (U12953)



posted 14 minutes ago


unbelievable if this is confirmed. as far as i can see, the rules are quite clear on this. if tiger is given a 2 shot penalty for something he did in the round, then he shot a 73 yesterday. he signed for a 71. so that is an automatic DQ.

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Spot on.

There is no getting away from the fact he has signed for an incorrect score.

I've seen golfers DQ'd for it before for lesser offences and this is the first time I have ever known a golfer not disqualified for it

One rule for Tiger and one for everyone else

The other players should refuse to play. It's cheating

the rule they are talking about clearly doesnt cover this; it relates to players being unaware of a transgression. its for things like a fractional grounding of a club in a bunker that the player would have been unaware of, that shows up on HD television coverage.

this isnt an unintentional breech. its Woods ignoring the rules of golf to give himself a competitive advantage. he said as much when interviewed after the round.

the rule they are stating does not cover this situation. its a fudge to keep Woods in the tournement. it stinks.

The rule is totally vague and open to interpretation.

"A penalty of disqualification may in exceptional individual cases be waived, modified or imposed if the Committee considers such action warranted."

Still can easily be looked at ad woods favouritism for the benefit of the tourney

For what it's worth I think woods needs to do the honorable thing and retire from the competition

this isnt an unintentional breech. its Woods ignoring the rules of golf to give himself a competitive advantage. he said as much when interviewed after the round.
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100% spot on

You cannot say it was unintentional because Tiger was ignorant of the rules

It's a golfer's responsibility to know them. Are they trying to say it's ok that the World's number 1 golfer is allowed to not know the rules? It's pathetic

Ig Tiger wins it now, ther'll be an uproar and I fully suspect there will be plenty of appeals, particularly from the second place guy and the guy who just missed out on automatic qualification for next years Masters

BTW, Harrington was leading a tourny after 3 rounds once and was DQ'd for simply forgetting to sign his card. Pretty sure he didn't do it on purpose

The precedent this is setting is unreal. Any golfer in any tourny could mark an incorrect scorecard and claim it was accidental, citing Tiger as a precedent

Ludicrous

They're making a huge error here for me.

comment by Manfrombelmonty (U1705)




posted 1 minute ago



For what it's worth I think woods needs to do the honorable thing and retire from the competition
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There is an homourable bone in his body

This is really gonna leave a sour taste in the mouths of the rest of the field

Clear clear bias

Can't the R&A intervene?

the statement of the tournement organisers explaining this makes it even more of a joke; they are saying that they didnt think it was dropped in the wrong place, until Woods admitted he has dropped it in the wrong place in the post round interview.

so its okay for Woods to knowingly cheat, because the referees didnt know he had cheated until he told them.

i stand by my earlier view; this is a farce, and will ultimately be extremely harmful for golf.

Both episodes do nothing for the image of golf. There was a lot of slow play yesterday, yet only one player gets punished, and sorry, but common sense should have come in, even if it's not in the rules.

Now 'THE' player of the tournament is given a punishment which lets be honest, if it was anyone else or in any other tournament, would have have been disqualified. No player is bigger than the game yet this ruling totally goes against that.

Tiger WTF! Anyone see his tweet? You can tell that went through Legal first

Anyone know when Day tees off?

The only question is whether Tiger knew at the time he made an incorrect drop. I don't believe he did, because he then wouldn't have blabbed about where he dropped the ball in his post-round interview which is what got him into trouble. The Rules Committee reviewed it and didn't have a problem until after his interview. He had already signed his card before they assigned the penalty so what's he supposed to do?

Hitting that flag has cost him approx. 4 strokes and an asterisk if he wins this thing.

Wow, grow up some of you.

Woods is a 'cheat' is he? Have a word.

You can rip apart him personally, but I'm not listening to idiots sit there and label the guy I've watched dominate golf as a kid to be a 'cheat'.

As far as golf goes, he's exactly the kind that has respect for the rules of the game. He should be DQ'd, no arguments there. But the guy isn't a cheat. He and his caddy have just had a brain fart in the heat of the moment.

If he was trying to cheat then why on earth would he come out after the interview and openly discuss what he did? He made a mistake, and he's lucky that a vague ruling has helped him out.

And it isn't "one rule for Tiger, one for everybody else". It's often one rule for the elite and one for everybody else. Why else has Guan been punished for slow play, but the statistically slower Jason Day not?

He shouldn't withdraw either just because a bunch of amateur rules officials in the media say so. That would be even more farcical and would imply that the ruling is soft in he's been treated differently, which may be true, but as a player it's not his place to decide that. He just has to respect the decision and get on with it.

"Woods ignoring the rules of golf to give himself a complete advantage"

I can't actually believe what I'm reading. More like:

Getting mixed up in relation to how far back the ball can be dropped and, in general, just dropping a clanger. We've all done it out there. We've definitely broke the rules unknowingly. I wouldn't be quick to label fellow golfers cheats, though. This is as innocent mistake as it gets, and people are letting their agenda get in the way of this.

One person here calls him a cheat and some of need to grow up for some reason. Not sure I get your fuzzy logic

Well whoever uses the word 'cheat', is talking bollox, to put it nicely.

Very little of this is actually Woods' fault. What I mean by this is do I think he should have been disqaulified? - Yes. But it's idealistic to think any player will say 'I will drop out'. The blame entirely lies with the organisers who should have had the balls to disqualify him rather than give him a 2 shot penalty.

I don't go for the Woods is a cheat theory, because he still had a great shot to play. And no-one at the time was thinking 'wow, he's cheated really badly there'. But whilst the rules of golf are complicated, by not disqualifying him, the organisers have just created more controversy.

Back to the golf anyway. Put a couple of quid each way on Mickelson and he's not doing anything. Disappointed, as I though he might go out there and shoot low with the pressure off. Tim Clark is showing it can be done.

It all just seems to be one big mess. Tiger messed up on the drop and now the officials admit they messed up.

Before he signed his card yesterday the officials had already reviewed the drop after a viewer called in and the officials had deemed that he had not broken any rules.

Only after his interview did they look again and this morning decided it did break a rule.

What a mess