FOWL PLAY IS NOT JOB OF TV FANS

® from JEREMY CROSS RICKIE FOWLER has called on golf bosses to prevent meddling fans from influencing tournaments.

Fowler will take part in the most watched golf event of the year this week when the Masters takes place at Augusta National.

But the American is fuming at how compatriot Lexi Thompson was denied the chance to win the first women’s Major of 2017 on Sunday.

Thompson was left stunned and heartbroken at the ANA Inspiration after being hit with a four-stroke penalty for replacing her ball in the wrong place the previous day in the third round.

Foolish

The incident was missed by rules officials but came to light when someone watching on TV emailed, almost 24 hours later, to alert them. The sanction went on to cost Thompson the title as she lost a play-off to South Korea’s Ryu So-Yeon.

Fowler (below) reckons it was wrong and that golf is making itself look foolish. He said: “There is no question it should be ended.

“Seeing the reaction from everyone and kind of how it was handled, yeah, I think we’ve seen some stuff in the past year that is not making the game look very good at all.

“There’s no other sport where people can call or email in or contact officials regarding an issue.

“I think you can talk to players and I don’t think you could find one that would say otherwise, that it shouldn’t be ended.

“If there’s an official always monitoring any video or anyone on camera, that’s fine. I have no problem with that. You look at other sports, they go to someone in the video booth and there’s an official in there that can look over stuff, great.

“But there shouldn’t be any outside contact, whether it’s email or phone calls, whatsoever.

“It’s been talked about for years and I’m still surprised that it’s around – or hasn’t been changed.”