Champions Tour golfer David Eger saw something rather peculiar while watching the 2013 Masters, so he watched, rewound and watched again. After coming to a conclusion that Tiger Woods had taken an illegal drop, he called it in.

‘Bout of misfortune’

On the 15th hole during his second round, Woods smacked a wonderful shot that would soon turn into a bout of misfortune. The ball hit the pin and spiraled back off the green and into the water.  Woods took a drop, hit the ball and moved on. Most watching from home moved on as well, but not all.

Eger then did what many in the audience probably thought of doing but had no way of going about it: He called a guy who might know about such things.  He scrambled to bring the drop to the officials’ attention before Woods signed a scorecard, because Eger was out for fair play, not to get Woods banned from the tournament. Masters’ competition committee chairman Fred Ridley would eventually look at the footage and offer that Woods was closer than the three to four feet offered in the rule.

‘Purposely took a drop’

However, things were further complicated when Ridley was later informed of candid remarks by Woods to reporters that he purposely took a drop behind his divot to get a better shot. While that is clearly not the admission of a man trying to pull a fast one, it sullies the suggestion the golf star took a valid drop.

CBS Sports reports Rule 33-7—for those who haven’t already pored over this minutiae weeks ago—states, “a penalty of disqualification may in exceptional individual cases be waived, modified or imposed if the Committee considers such action warranted.” And so the man who started a bizarre debate was the same man who saved Woods from outright disqualification.

Now that the identity of the mystery whistleblower is already known, do you think Tiger Woods’ illegal drop is still a big deal or not? Did David Eger make the right decision when he reported the drop?

Source: Gabe Zaldivar, Bleacher Report

Image: Sport Right Now