Only in golf are you not only expected to call penalties on yourself but there are also thousands of other rules officials watching on Social Media and ready to pounce at a moment’s notice. In fact, fans could actually call in rule violations until the practice was banned at the end of 2017.
Collin Morikawa’s adventure on the sixth green at Augusta National during the first round of the Masters on Thursday got the rule-hawkers’ dander up.
— NUCLR GOLF (@NUCLRGOLF) April 6, 2023
Morikawa’s tee shot on the par-3 sixth landed around 37 feet from the hole. He then addressed the putt before the ball Moved slightly. After checking with playing partner Matt Fitzpatrick, he moved the ball back and took his birdie putt. He then parred the hole and moved on with his day, which ended at a 3-under 69—four shots behind the leaders.
As social media was blowing up, Golf Magazine’s Nick Piastowski came in with the USGA rule backing Morikawa’s actions:
“If natural forces cause a player’s ball on the putting green to move, where the player must play from next depends on whether the ball had already been lifted and replaced on its original spot: Ball Already Lifted and Replaced. The ball must be replaced on its original spot (which if not known must be estimated), even though it was moved by natural forces and not by the player, the opponent or an outside influence. Ball Not Already Lifted and Replaced. The ball must be played from its new spot.”
What got fans’ attention was Morikawa moving his ball marker, which he said was tossed in no specific place.
Here’s the full video…Ball moved as I addressed it, so I threw the coin down in no specific place, replaced the ball to the original spot and then moved my marker to the original spot (from where I threw it). I play by the rules, I promise. https://t.co/HQhIv68vKE
— Collin Morikawa (@collin_morikawa) April 7, 2023
It was an eventful day, as expected, at the Masters, led by Brooks Koepka’s 7-under performance that tied him atop the leaderboard with Viktor Hovland and Jon Rahm, who overcame a four-putt double bogey on the first hole to share the lead at the end of Thursday’s play.
Cover Image Via Twitter
