Golf’s ruling bodies, the St. Andrews-based R & A and the USGA, will shortly release a statement clarifying the decision surrounding Tiger Woods being slapped with a two-shot penalty for an illegal drop during the second round of the recent Masters at Augusta.
Woods was informed he would be penalised two strokes but only after the Championship Committee at Augusta admitted an error in not speaking with Woods straight after his second round, but then noting long afterwards the 14-time Major Champion stated in his post second round comments to the media that he had taken his penalty drop two yards from the spot where he hit his third shot into the 15th green.
Tiger Woods taking his penalty during the second round of the 2013 Masters.
“My understanding is that a viewer, or more than one viewer, called in to question as to whether Tiger had behaved within the rules at that point, and that the Augusta Tournament Committee, looked at the footage and decided that Tiger had not breached the rules, and therefore no one went to Tiger when he signed his scorecard to say ‘let’s talk about what happened at 15? and don’t sign your score card to we sort this out’,” said Dawson.
“I was acting as a rules official myself at Augusta and when I walked in on Saturday morning after this incident, John Paramour (Chief Referee, European Tour) said to me: ‘I think they should do the following a, b, c and d, and actually that’s what happened.
“So someone as respected as John Paramour felt that was the end of it all.
“Normally signing for a wrong score results in disqualification but Rule 33-7, and it’s not a new rule, and the strange thing that despite rule books this thick (Dawson using his fingers to point out width of books) and decision books this thick (again using his fingers), something new does happen from time to time.
“That’s why the R & A and the USGA is going to be issuing a detailed statement about this ruling in the very near future, and in going forward.”
And Dawson revealed the R & A and the USGA has commissioned a study group to currently look at the Rules of Golf in an endeavour to simplify the rules.
