Lexi Thompson was cruising to a victory at the ANA Invitational, the LPGA Tour’s first major of the year. Her play was stunning and she was coasting in on the back nine when disaster struck. A rules official approached her on the 13th hole and informed her that a rules violation had happened on her round the day before and she was going to be penalized 4 strokes. First, she thought it was a joke, then she was shocked. Finally, she fought back the emotion and realized she had some work to do. Lexi was amazing through the whole thing, and I think that's something that people forget when they talk "integrity, honestly and good of the game." There is a point where human error kicks in and things have to slide, especially when they are your fault for missing them to start with.
I didn't watch the tournament, but I watched the replay of the entire incident. Her putt was so close, she almost tapped it in, but at the last minute her eye was drawn to something that didn't suit her setup. She quickly marked the ball, aligned it to the hole and put it back down - FROM THE SIDE. This is something tour pros never do, they always mark from behind. She missed placing the ball back down perfectly (which gave her no competitive advantage) and putted out. Taking into account all of that, with there being no competitive advantage to what she did, calling a penalty was plain crazy and steals a victory from not just the possible winner, but also the winner herself.
There is nothing to say that Lexi couldn't have blown up on the closing holes. There's nothing to say that Ryu couldn't have made another putt or two on the way in to narrow the gap. It's all about the ruling now. That's what's wrong with golf, it's just like football or basketball games where the ref blows a call that costs a team the victory.
What should have been done here is the LPGA should have used this as a reminder to the ruling officials to WATCH the match. Maybe having more rules volunteers on the course to switch out after 6 holes? Can you imagine an NFL crew calling a 8 hour game? They are going to miss more than a few holds there... If instead of destroying a beautiful tournament - and another major - they could have taken the high road and announced that they were made aware of the issue, and although it was not a legal marking, they deemed that no competitive advantage was obtained and they have decided not to rule on the issue. They could then use this as a tool for the officials and other players, to watch for incidents like this one. Can you imagine just enforcing the 2 stroke penalty at the time of the incident instead of a 4 stroke penalty 24 hours later? It would have been much easier to deal with.
This is as much on the "rules official" that follower her and her playing partners, caddies and anyone else watching that green. They all missed it, but then again, pretty much everyone did, except that guy watching on his 70" plasma at home.
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