Collin Morikawa given two-shot penalty for breaking golf rule at Tiger's event
Collin Morikawa was adjudged to have broken one of the PGA Tour's rules during the third round of Tiger Woods' Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas.
Collin Morikawa was given a two-stroke penalty during Tiger Woods' Hero World Challenge for breaking a rule regarding green-reading material.
The official PGA Tour communications department confirmed Morikawa had fallen foul of the rules with a statement posted at 5.14pm on 3 December.
Morikawa was said to have been given the penalty for breaching Model Local Rule G-11 which restricts the use of green-reading materials.
The Tour said the breach occurred during Morikawa's third round on Albany's fourth hole.
NEW: Matthew Fitzpatrick defends grassing on Collin Morikawa
Morikawa had recorded a bogey on the hole but it was later changed to a seven.
He therefore started the fourth and final round at 8-under par instead of 10-under.
Green-reading books were banned by the Tour in January 2022.
The purpose behind restricting the green-reading books is to ensure that players and caddies use only their eyes and feel to help them read the line of play on the putting green.
Critics say the books offered too much assistance.
Statement on Collin Morikawa pic.twitter.com/A2lOtxBpI3
— PGA TOUR Communications (@PGATOURComms) December 3, 2023
What happened?
PGA Tour rules official Stephen Cox joined the NBC broadcast to explain what happened.
He said Morikawa's caddie had used a device for measuring the practice putting green and transferred that data into handwritten notes in their yardage book.
Cox said it was the only breach and that both player and caddie pushed back against the penalty as they were unaware of the 'nuanced' nature of the rule.
Interestingly, Cox explained they were only alerted to the possible violation by Morikawa's playing partner or caddie.
The American played the third round of the Hero World Challenge with England's Matthew Fitzpatrick.
Cox said: "Unfortunately, the caddie used a device, a level, on the practice putting green.
"That's not a breach of the rule in itself but what he did was he developed that chart or formula as a handwritten note in his yardage book.
"That's where the breach occurred. Because he used it while assessing the putt [at No. 4] during his third round he was assessed a two-shot penalty."
He added: "[Morikawa] was very frustrated, it's a very complicated rule. Obviously, when we implemented it back in 2022 there was a huge amount of [green-reading] information.
"These hand-written notes needed to be obtained through traditional methods to protect the fundamental skill of reading greens.
"In this situation, the caddie used the level to determine degrees of slope on the [practice] putting green and formulated a putting chart and transferred that into the [yardage] book.
"Had he used traditional methods and estimated with his feet or other means the percentages of slope that formula would be fine."
What the Rules of Golf say:
Model Local Rule G-11:
Restricting Use of Green-Reading Materials Purpose
Rule 4.3, and specifically Interpretation 4.3a/1, puts limitations on the size and scale of detailed green-reading materials.
But to ensure that players and caddies use only their eye and feel to help them read the line of play on the putting green, the Committee may further restrict the use of green-reading materials by requiring that players are limited throughout their round to using only the yardage book that has been approved for use in the competition.
This Local Rule is intended only for the highest levels of competitive golf and, even then, only to competitions where it is realistic for the Committee to undertake an approval process for yardage books.
When introducing this Local Rule, the Committee is responsible for approving the yardage book that players may use, and the approved yardage book should contain diagrams of putting greens with minimal detail only (such as significant slopes, tiers or false edges that indicate sections of greens).
Players and caddies may add handwritten notes to the approved yardage book to help them read the line of play on a putting green, so long as those notes are allowed under this Local Rule.
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