Video vigilantes rule angers Day

TWO new rulings giving golfers the benefit of the doubt for minor rules violations didn’t go far enough, according to world No.3 Jason Day.

As LPGA star Lexi Thompson opened up on the misplacing of her ball which cost her a major championship a month ago and moved officials to make the changes, Day said the fact they did not rule out TV viewers calling in rule breaches was “a joke”.

Thompson (pictured) broke down in tears as she recalled the incident in the third round of the ANA Championship when she was ruled to have moved her ball forward of its marker on the green, by a matter of millimetres.

A TV viewer picked up the minor error, called it in, and the next day, as she walked down the fairway in the final round, Thompson was penalised four shots, two for the ball movement and two for signing an incorrect scorecard.

Thompson, 22, lost the lead in the tournament and eventually lost in a playoff.

“It was just a nightmare,” she said yesterday in Texas. “I have seen the video and I can see where they’re coming from. It might have been, I guess, me rotating the ball, But I have always played by the rules of golf. I did not mean it at all.”

Earlier this week golf’s ruling bodies announced, with immediate effect, a rule change that will allow players to avoid penalty for a minor infraction that could not be reasonably seen with the naked eye.

But the new rule does not stop officials considering incidents reported by television viewers, which also happened at the 2013 Masters when Tiger Woods incorrectly dropped his ball, and was penalised the next day.

As he prepared for the PGA Tour’s new teams event at the Zurich Open in New Orleans, Day, who will play with Rickie Fowler, said the new rules did not go far enough. “I think that’s a joke,” Day said. “The integrity of the game comes down to the actual player itself. There’s been plenty of times where I’ve moved the ball and I’ve called a rules official and called a penalty.”

He said in basketball, football and hockey, there were plenty of rules infractions that referees did not call.

“We’re in an unfortunate situation where guys in the morning who aren’t on TV sometimes accidentally break rules, and then guys on TV, 2pm in the afternoon do and pay the ultimate price.”