Lexi Rule a victory for commonsense

the previous day and then signing for a wrong score.

The infringement was spotted by a television viewer who contacted officials.

Thompson was only informed she had been penalised on the back nine of her final round and closing in on victory.

Quite understandably, she was left bewildered and very upset by the whole experience.

The R&A and USGA have moved quickly following the controversy and implemented a rule change to lessen the impact of video technology in the game.

The change will allow tournament officials to apply a more flexible and commonsense approach.

The decision comes into effect immediately. It means television replays that identify infringements that could not have been spotted by the naked eye will not be deemed a breach of the rules and a player’s reasonable judgment will be accepted – even if video evidence proves them wrong.

Make no mistake, this is a positive step. The ultra-slow replays can highlight slight movements or a club touching a few grains of sand in a bunker that the average golfer would have otherwise been oblivious to. We have to let the match officials deal with any potential rules violations rather than have people phoning in from home. When you or I watch a football match, we can’t phone in to make a change if our team concedes a goal that was clearly offside. I’m glad they have managed to get the rules changed so quickly as what happened to Thompson reflected poorly on our sport.

The change has been dubbed the Lexi Rule and I wonder how the American feels about the whole episode.

She returns to for the first time this week since the incident, at the Volunteers of America Texas Shootout on the LPGA Tour and, by all accounts, has found it difficult to deal with what happened.

The penalty denied her what would have been a second major win but the events has changed the way golf will now be officiated.

Thankfully it is a situation that will not arise again, but I’m not sure how much comfort Lexi will take from that.

“When you or I watch football, we can’t phone in to make a change if our team concedes”