04/18/24
April 13, 2013
Tiger Woods Assessed 2-Stroke Penalty for Illegal Drop: Tiger Woods turned himself in for an illegal drop after the second round of the Masters and has been assessed a two-stroke penalty. "At hole #15, I took a drop that I thought was correct and in accordance with the rules. I was unaware at that time I had violated any rules," Woods explained on Twitter. "Their initial determination was that there was no violation, but they had additional concerns based on my post-round interview. After discussing the situation with them this morning, I was assessed a two-shot penalty." Before a 2011 rule change, such a penalty would have resulted in his expulsion from the tournament for signing an incorrect scorecard. Woods falls to five strokes off the lead.
The discussion of this episode and the various elements of faux outrage on Sportscenter that I saw for about 10 minutes made my head hurt, so I gave up.
posted by Bonkers at 01:36 PM on April 13, 2013
Just imagine the wailing & gnashing of teeth if the old rules were still in effect and Tiger got DQd. Sportscenter would go into hyper-outrage mode and my Facebook wall would look like Obama just got elected to a 3rd term.
posted by jmd82 at 01:58 PM on April 13, 2013
Faldo (and others) calling for TW to man up and withdraw. But not on CBS.
If this keeps gaining steam through the day, can't wait to hear the lilting sound of the tranquil, bucolic tournament music on TV being played underneath the sound of ongoing garment rending.
One tweet-at-large posed an interesting scenario: Tiger wins the tournament, THEN withdraws.
Of all the jacket lapels in the US most in need of a little Charles Barkley taco sauce staining, those belonging to the greened-out top dawgs at ANGC would rank right up at the top of my list.
posted by beaverboard at 02:21 PM on April 13, 2013
The rule says the drop must be done "as near as possible" to the spot from which the original shot was taken. Two yards on a fairway is not as near as possible. Period! Woods admits he calculated dropping back by 2 yards and taking another 2 yards off his shot to get the ball to the desired spot on the green. This sounds to me like a deliberate violation of the drop rule; hoping it would be near enough that no one would notice. Then he comes off like the kid with his hand in the cookie jar smiling weakly at his mommy saying he didn't know he wasn't supposed to do it. In Woods' defense, the tournament committee didn't figure it out the first time either, and that's the only thing that saves him. I can't believe that Woods would not know the rules well enough to understand where a drop was to be made, and I can't believe that if there were any doubt at all, he would not have asked for help from a tournament official. Well, I suppose that the mere mortals who play the game must know and obey the rules, while the gods are exempted.
posted by Howard_T at 03:16 PM on April 13, 2013
He wasn't exempted from the rules. He lost two strokes.
posted by rcade at 03:18 PM on April 13, 2013
I am well aware of the penalty assessed for the illegal drop. My contention is that he should have been aware of the specific language in the drop rule, deliberately ignored it, signed a scorecard that he should have known might be incorrect, and therefore should be DQed.
posted by Howard_T at 03:25 PM on April 13, 2013
Faldo has since gone on TV and said he's reversed his outrage after hearing everything that the Augusta committee has said, including their timeline of events.
Of course, the conspiracy theorists will ignore that info and still ask for Tiger to be DQ'd.
posted by grum@work at 03:33 PM on April 13, 2013
Well, I suppose that the mere mortals who play the game must know and obey the rules, while the gods are exempted.
I guess golf *is* a sport, then...
posted by MeatSaber at 04:08 PM on April 13, 2013
My problem is the ability of everyday people, eating their Cheezy Poofs in their chair or on their couch while watching these tournaments, suddenly having nothing better to do than pester a desk operator with an apoplectic telephone call. If a tournament official who's not on the course recognizes a foul through a television feed and alerts a course ranger for handling, fine. I have a hard time dealing with people from the outside who want to nose their way into the result of a tournament ... these calls should never be accepted; it would have to be called an official's oversight in this case.
posted by jjzucal at 06:00 PM on April 13, 2013
Pinpoint accuracy hurts:
If Tiger had been an inch and a quarter off either to the left or right, his third shot wouldn't have hit the flag stick yesterday, and he'd be at the top of the leaderboard at the end of play today.
posted by beaverboard at 07:25 PM on April 13, 2013
it would have to be called an official's oversight in this case
A top-ranked golfer, a pro for many years, suddenly does not know the drop rule? The penalty that he was ultimately assessed seems secondary here. If he was confused, why didn't he err on the side of caution instead of giving himself a better lie with an illegal drop?
posted by roberts at 07:40 PM on April 13, 2013
A top-ranked golfer, a pro for many years, suddenly does not know the drop rule?
It would seem that there have been many (hundreds?) of professional golfers that have made a mistake with the rules at some point on the PGA, and have been assessed penalties as a result.
This would seem to suggest that the rules are either very complicated, not well explained, or simply so numerous that it's hard to keep track of all of them.
posted by grum@work at 08:59 PM on April 13, 2013
... suddenly having nothing better to do than pester a desk operator with an apoplectic telephone call.
If they have nothing better to do than watch golf on TV, how is it a poor use of their time to call in a rules infraction? The fact this is possible is one of the greatest things about golf. If I could call holding penalties while watching an NFL game, I'd spend all Sunday on the phone.
posted by rcade at 09:52 PM on April 13, 2013
The fact this is possible is one of the greatest things about golf. If I could call holding penalties while watching an NFL game, I'd spend all Sunday on the phone.
Yeah, but then the NFL would just outsource your job to somewhere in Asia where 10 people could watch the game for half the beer/chips cost.
posted by grum@work at 10:23 PM on April 13, 2013
This would seem to suggest that the rules are either very complicated, not well explained, or simply so numerous that it's hard to keep track of all of them.
Golf: the US tax code of sports.
posted by etagloh at 12:17 AM on April 14, 2013
In order to win the Masters, Tiger Woods "needs to really shoot a good score," says Paul Azinger.
posted by rcade at 08:48 AM on April 14, 2013
Tiger Woods "needs to really shoot a good score"
ESPN referred to holes 10 through 18 as the "back nine" instead of the "second nine".
That is strictly against the rules at Augusta, and they are no longer welcome on the grounds of the club.
posted by beaverboard at 11:59 AM on April 14, 2013
I'm glad this is no longer a disqualification. I enjoy the weirdness of TV viewers being able to report violations, but a two-stroke penalty is enough punishment for this infraction.