Tiger Woods Not Disqualified, Given 2 Stroke Penalty For Illegal Drop

Tiger Woods was nearly disqualified today when he was given a two stroke penalty for an illegal drop at The Masters.

Augusta National announced today that Woods was given a two stroke penalty for making an illegal drop at the fifteenth hole on Friday afternoon. There was also speculation that Woods would be disqualified since he signed an incorrect scorecard at the end of the day.

Augusta National decided to give Tiger the two stroke penalty, dropping his score from 71 to 73, but said that the world’s no. 1 golfer could continue his quest for a fifth green jacket.

Tiger is now one under par for the week.

ESPN notes that the R&A and U.S. Golf Association have relaxed the rules on disqualification recently, saying that a player should not be disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard if they were not aware that it was incorrect.

The USGA said in a statement: “This revision to Decision 33-7/4.5 addresses the situation where a player is not aware he has breached a Rule because of facts that he did not know and could not reasonably have discovered prior to returning his score card. Under this revised decision and at the discretion of the Committee, the player still receives the penalty associated with the breach of the underlying Rule, but is not disqualified.”

The 15th hole on Friday was disastrous for Woods. The golfer was making a run toward the top of the leader board when his ball ricocheted off of the flag pole and shot into the water. Woods was then forced to take a drop but didn’t place the ball close enough to its original location.

Woods said during a post round press conference that he placed his ball about 2 yards from its original spot

Woods said: “I went back to where I played it from, but I went 2 yards further back and I took, tried to take two yards off the shot of what I felt I hit.”

Do you think Tiger Woods should have been disqualified? Are you happy that he’ll continue to play at The Masters?

This isn’t the only controversial penalty at The Masters this year. Tianlang Guan, the youngest player to ever swing a club at The Masters, nearly missed the cut yesterday after he was given a one stroke penalty for slow play.