The Tiger Woods drop controversy at the Masters last month caused a stir throughout the golf world after the number one ranked golfer was hit with a penalty after taking an illegal drop at Augusta and many felt it was wrong that a call someone watching the major resulted in him losing strokes, but that may have saved him from getting disqualified.
According to a story written by Golf.com, the person who called in about the issue was Champions Tour golfer David Eger and the report details what happened that day at Augusta and how the penalty transpired. Eger said that he noticed on the broadcast that there was a divot hole when Woods played the shot for the second time and after rewinding, he noticed that it was not there the first time Woods shot and he noticed the hole ahead of where he played the shot.
After noticing the issue, Eger called an official that was working at the tournament in Mickey Bradley and he explained the drop he noticed. Following the call, Bradley then called competition committee chairman Fred Ridley and officials working on the course and alerted them to the issue. The report from Golf.com said that Eger wrote a text message that said that Woods "didn't appear to play by Rule 26-1-a" and added that he was " 3-4 feet back" from his original spot.
Even though initially it seemed like the call was a bad thing for Woods, the report goes on to say that Eger's call actually helped keep Woods from being disqualified from the major. Ridley at first interpreted the call wrong and Woods was in the clear on the course, but after his comments and the call, Ridley was able to use rule 33-7, which was added recently and kept him to just a two-stroke penalty rather than a full on disqualification.
Things were a bit complicated, but in the end the call helped Woods and Eger, who was previously a tournament director with the PGA Tour and the USGA, actually put Augusta and the rules officials on the hook for the mistake rather than Woods by the end of it all. Following all the issues with the drop, both of golf's governing bodies came out on Wednesday and said that they supported the ruling on the decision. According to ESPN.com, they will do a review of the situation and the drop, but said they agreed with the penalty and not a disqualification.
