Controversy at The Masters

The Masters Tournament, often referred to as the Super Bowl of golf, is the most famed and cherished tournament in the golfing world. Yet the 2013 Masters Tournament was very controversial. 

Tiger Woods, one of golf’s greatest, had just regained his title of number one golfer in the world. As with most golf tournaments Tiger Woods has played in, the spotlight was shining bright on him the entire time especially on Hole 15. Woods took an approach shot to the green on Hole 15 which ended up bouncing off the flagstick and rolling off the green and into the water. When Wood’s took his drop for his next shot it appeared that he did what any normal golfer would do and drop it where he played his last shot. Tiger’s next shot landed beautifully on the green and set him up for a nice putt. Course officials noted the drop, OK’d it and let him finish his round. Tiger signed off on his scorecard to end his day, but that’s only the beginning of the story.

After multiple phone calls from at-home fans and reviews from the Rules Committee, Tiger was penalized 2 strokes for dropping his penalty shot 2-yds behind where he hit his first shot. Woods accepted the penalty, but not with good graces. Afterwards, Tiger made this comment about his shot and the ruling:  “Well, I went down to the drop area, that wasn't going to be a good spot, because obviously it's into the grain, it's really grainy there. And it was a little bit wet. So it was muddy and not a good spot to drop. So I went back to where I played it from, but I went two yards further back and I took, tried to take two yards off the shot of what I felt I hit. And that should land me short of the flag and not have it either hit the flag or skip over the back. I felt that that was going to be the right decision to take off four right there. And I did. It worked out perfectly.” (Fagan, 2013).  With this admittance to consciously dropping his next shot 2-yds back to have a better approach, Woods caught a lot of grief from fans and other golfers as well. 

Golf is a sport unlike no other. Sportsmanship and honesty is paramount. Many people believe he should have been disqualified by the officials or disqualified himself for the illegal drop. Critics say that he didn't handle it the “gentleman-way” and broke the unspoken, but highly encouraged, integrity of the game. 

With so many sports fans debating the fairness and integrity for this controversial shot, it is easy to question why fans don’t have a say in outcome of other sports. The answer is simple --- because then it wouldn't be a sport about the athletes, it would be about what the fans want to see. Was this an obvious 2-stroke penalty after review? Yes. Was the due-process handled correctly afterwards? I don’t believe so on the principle that during the round the officials ruled Tiger’s play fair. It’s a no-brainer --- the ruling on the field of play should stand and that should have been the end of it.