The PGA Tour introduced Sunday on the Hero World Problem that Collin Morikawa acquired a two-stroke penalty for a mistake throughout his third spherical. That end result basically took Morikawa out of any attainable hopes of a miracle win.
He went from 10-under to 8-under by 54 holes, with Scottie Scheffler coming into Sunday within the lead at 16-under par.
Morikawa performed with Matt Fitzpatrick on Saturday. After the information broke on Sunday, it was reported that Fitzpatrick was the one who alerted the principles officers, in keeping with Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis.
Stephen Cox, a PGA Tour guidelines workers member, joined the stay broadcast after the Tour issued its assertion to present a greater understanding of how the rule was a breach.
“On this explicit state of affairs with Collin’s caddie JJ, I met with him, and he confirmed that he had a placing system, which is quite common out right here on Tour,” Cox mentioned on air with Golf Channel. “Sadly, how he went about formulating that placing system and that chart — he used a tool to acquire that on the observe placing inexperienced, the degrees of slope.”
“Utilizing a tool isn’t a breach itself, however whenever you switch that into your yardage ebook after which subsequently use that for inexperienced studying use, that’s when the breach occurred.”
Cox acknowledged that Mannequin Native Rule G-11 was sophisticated as a result of gamers and caddies have used handwritten notes for years. He defined how that is one other elementary talent the Tour needed gamers and caddies to maintain.
Nonetheless, they solely need them to have it in the event that they do it historically and defined that they gave the governing our bodies particular methods of how gamers can set up these notes.
He may have used the numbers in the event that they had been obtained by one in all these methods by rolling out a ball on the inexperienced, utilizing their ft, eyes, or watching another person ball roll. Because it wasn’t obtained in one in all these methods, it was a breach.
This rule was a part of the 2022 change when the Tour put a restriction in place to retain the talent of studying greens.
Morikawa and his caddie weren’t conscious of this nuance behind the rule, and fortunately, he solely used this method on the fourth gap. Because it was a single prevalence, the penalty was assessed. As a substitute of a bogey on 4, the two-time main winner recorded a triple-bogey.
The two-time main champ would end solo seventh at 10-under following a last spherical 68.
Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf workers author for SB Nation’s Taking part in By way of. You’ll be able to observe her on Twitter @SportsGirlSL and Instagram @savannah_leigh_sports for extra golf protection. Remember to try @_PlayingThrough too.
