all markers are different sizes ,there must be 1000,s upon 1000,s of cases depending on how the markers placed and replaced that if not the length the angle of the putt is changed,some players do it that quick who no,s if there stealing a few mm,changing the line ever so slightly especially on the longer putts

yes Mickleson's recent manipulation of the rules in the wgc event was ridiculous

The Rules Official who broke the news to Lexi on course said today ( I would not have been able to sleep that night if I did not carry out the ruling)

Says it all!

No way after scorecard accepted by same Rules Official previous night that they should be allowed to retrospectively punish her, and FOUR shots just absurd, even if TV pics caught her kicking it up the green 10 yds!

heard one the week before ,when euan corrected the person who,d emailed in,but how many times are people contacting the officials and are getting knocked back that we dont no about,there,ll be busybodys been forensic over every minute of coverage phoning in 10 times a tournament

its not just the ruling been severe but in the same tourney its possible it could benefit someone who,s hit it into 18 grandstands got 18 free drops,sank putts helped by markings on the ball,lined up by his caddy,etc,etc,
anyone remember tiger winning once when he hit 100 yds over the green down a chimmney into a pan of soup in the kitchen and gets a drop next to the green

therhino    04 Apr 17 14:37 
My sympathy is with the rules officials.
They have been put in a difficult position. Damned if they do, damned if they don't.

Disagree with this. If they chose to do nothing, no one would have ever known a thing. This debacle is entirely their own creation.

My understanding is they didn't email in but put the comments on the fans page of the lpga site. I presume this is public and may have been seen by others. They couldn't chose to do nothing once they had been informed of a blatant rules breach which was backed up by the footage. At this point they had to follow the rules set down which they did correctly. You could question the time scale involved.

You can argue that the ruling is unfair that is subjective but it is the rule. The 2 shot penalty for signing an incorrect scorecard when the card was signed in good faith in my view should be scrapped but the officials had little choice here.

I am surprised that Thompson has not received more criticism for her actions. She clearly goes to tap it in the decides to mark and within a 5 second period picks it up and puts it down in a different position in pretty much one move. The more I see it the more I think she cheated - moving the ball to gain an advantage.

Sophie, Luv.
Just a bit of banter ...  a bit more subtle than calling somebody a muppet. ... but if that's the language you understand ... whatever.

LOL

Clearly language you also understand seen as you reciprocated!!

I dont think many people are arguing about that North Berwick.

Imo she definitely didn't replace the ball in the right place-only she really knows the reason she did what she did. She may genuinely have not realized what she had done. Her playing partners and match official didn't see anything untoward. However, it is the way in which it was dealt with that is ridiculous-especially the time delay and the ludicrous (albeit correct) extra penalty for not signing the card properly, despite it being accepted on the day.

Golf really does have to sort out its rules.

Why they have to wait until 2019 to introduce the new rules that most golfers think are reasonable is bizarre.

You can debate the two stroke penalty for signing the wrong card but she simply at best broke the rules of golf and at worst cheated , only she will know this.  It's as clear as day though she did not mark the ball correctly and I find it hard to believe that she didn't know what she was doing

players will be wetting themselves this week .close ups everywhere watching players mark or replace the ball,expect carnage again

imo,
the idea that players who use never used stances,line of sight,etc,etc to gain an advantage 300 yds from the hole,arnt going tp pinch the odd inch here and there on a green 30,40,50 ft from the holes is laughable imo,especialy those not on the live tv pics,fighting for the cut,their card,careers etc,
this incident and micko have just put it out there

its just the madness of golf rarely they seem obcessed with anything that gets you closer to the hole ,but standing water on greens, water in bunkers around greens,sprinkle heads around greens etc,etc,and you can get free drops backwards ,sidewards which maybe further away but greatly change the angle etc and make the shot far easier

Well done Phil Mickelson. Nice to see someone with the bollux to tell it how it really is.

more to the point..her fellow pros(NO double entendres here guys) know the SP
if this were not to be an aberration(and it was pretty brazen not a tiny 'mistaken' fraction)
just wonder what their attitude towards her from hereonin will be
not so much on the course where it will be business as usual
but off of it and if it's pretty icy and negative
whether it will affect her as she seems quite a cheery girl
personally even tho' i now feel she trangressed wittingly
i don't wish her any ill
and would hope she learns and grows from this without any undue rancour

more like 12 inches on a 6mm putt

Mickleson is popular with the media and fans he seems to get along the younger guys but it wasn't so long ago he was one of the most unpopular out there. He didn't get the nickname figjam for nothing.

What an absolute fiasco.  This is no way to run a major sport.  When is a round actually completed and the score confirmed as being final? So, what happens if someone emails in the day after a tournament has finished to say they spotted the winner breaching the rules during their final round?  The sport of golf reached a low with the Dustin Johnson affair at the US Open last year but it has plumbed new depths now.  The people who run the game need to act very quickly before we have another disaster.

Point taken, Rhino, but golf is different.
The emphasis is on players to police themselves unlike other sports where the culture is different
A bit out of left field here but you could compare it with a thief only being prosecuted if he gets caught in the act.
Which puts cheating at golf on the same level as committing a crime.
Either way it's all daft ... all they are doing is knocking a ball around a field.

However if you are betting on it you have to accept that the rules are applied as they stand .. which they were.
No doubt though the rules will change because of this.

Starting(?) to ramble now but one last thought (it may already have been) mentioned. Scrutiny should be equal across the field, which it isn't because tv focuses on the leaders.