Tiger Woods has pleaded the 33rd Ammendment declaring he did no wrong and cited ‘Harrington Rule’ after calls he should have disqualified himself from the Masters.

Woods was earlier today slapped with a two-shot penalty following an incorrect drop at the 15th hole during his second round at Augusta National.

But while the Masters Championship Committee had initially decided the 14-time Major winner had did no wrong, a TV viewer phoned Augusta saying Woods had not taken his drop not from the spot where he had played his third shot.

And the issued turned into a major controversy after it surfaced that Woods indicated in a post-round interview he had taken his penalty drop two yards away from the position of that third shot.

Woods was asked to return to the course early this morning, and following a lengthy discussion with the Championship Committee members, he was saved from disqualification under Rule 33-7 or ‘Harrington’s Rule’, and a rule introduced into the game following Padraig Harrington’s dismissal from the 2011 Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship after a TV viewer phoned in when Harrington, and unbeknown to himself, had accidently knocked his ball in picking up his marker during a first round 65.

Tiger Woods pleads innocence citing ‘Harrington Rule’.

Golf’s ruling bodies, the R & A and USGA, brought in the rule to protect players from ‘Trial by Video’ and given the advanced slow-motion technology now available to TV companies that has seen armchair anoraks phoning to report the slightest breach of the rules.

Woods was quizzed about the ruling following his third round of 70 that will see him head to the final round of the year’s first Major sharing seventh place at three under par and only four shots from the lead.

Q. If you hadn’t mentioned this in your press yesterday about how you took the drop, do you think this would have happened?

TIGER WOODS:  No, because they already made the determination prior to me finishing the 18th hole.  Fred and the Rules Committee had already made that determination that everything was fine.

Q.  Did you think you could go back?  Did you get mixed up with what you could do there with that drop?

TIGER WOODS:  You know, I wasn’t even really thinking.  I was still a little ticked at what happened, and I was just trying to figure, okay, I need to take some yardage off this shot, and that’s all I was thinking about was trying to make sure I took some yardage off of it, and evidently, it was pretty obvious, I didn’t drop in the right spot.

Q.  Can you walk us through this morning real quick?

TIGER WOODS:  Well, I didn’t know there was an issue until I looked at my phone and saw Steinie texted me and said give me a shout.  I gave him a shout this morning, and he said, Fred wants to talk to you.  I’m like, okay, so I called up Freddie, and he explained the whole situation, says come on in and let’s talk about it, so I did, and we went through the whole process from there.

Q.  What has this day been like for you?

TIGER WOODS:  You know, it started off obviously different, but I’m right there in the ballgame.  As of right now I’m four back with a great shot to win this championship.

Q.  As all this was going on this morning there were TV guys on talking about you ought to take yourself out of the tournament, withdraw, disqualify yourself.  What do you think of those kind of guys that say that kind of stuff?

TIGER WOODS:  I don’t know.  Under the rules of golf I can play.  I was able to go out there and compete and play.  Evidently this is the Harrington rule, I guess.  If it was done a year or two ago, whatever, I wouldn’t have the opportunity to play.  But the rules have changed, and under the rules of golf I was able to play.

Q.  Was your first thought you might be disqualified when you heard about this this morning?

TIGER WOODS:  I didn’t know what was going on.  Fred explained the whole situation, and just said, come on in and let’s just talk about it, and from there we went through it.

Q.  How long did it take to kind of put it out of your mind and refocus on the golf?

TIGER WOODS:  Normal, just when I go into the gym.  Got all activated and ready to go, and once I came to the golf course I was ready to play.”