Tiger Woods escaped expulsion from the Masters despite an illegal drop on Friday because golf’s rules provide a discretionary element over how such a violation is punished, according to a senior official.
Woods took an improper drop on the 15th hole, two yards from where he should have dropped. But it was only the player’s own admission about this in his post-round press conference that alerted course officials.
By then they had reviewed his drop and erroneously found nothing wrong with it.
Controversy: Tiger Woods dropped the ball too far from the designated distanceIan Pattinson, who has acted as a rules official at more than 30 major championships, including all four majors, explained yesterday why Woods had not had special treatment in being allowed to play on.
‘From a Rules of Golf perspective, the first issue is whether he dropped the ball as nearly as possible to the spot from which it was originally played,’ Pattinson says.
‘Tiger’s own quotes, about dropping two yards further back, say not, which suggests that a two-stroke penalty for an incorrect drop is probable.
Confession: Woods said he did not know that he had broken the rules with his drop‘So we move on to the fact the two-stroke penalty should have been added to the score and wasn’t.
That takes us to the finishing point of either a) disqualification for handing in an incorrect scorecard; or b) the [Augusta] committee could impose the two-stroke penalty but not disqualify the player, under rule 33-7, “Disqualification Penalty; Committee Discretion”, which states: “A penalty of disqualification may in exceptional individual cases be waived, modified or imposed if the committee considers such action warranted”.
‘That, as the rule says, is discretionary.’ One mistaken explanation for Woods’s reprieve was an amendment to rule 33-7 two years ago. This let players who had unwittingly made honest mistakes later highlighted by TV cameras to avoid disqualification.
In fact, Woods got away with a two-stroke penalty simply because the rules have long allowed discretion.
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