Todd Lewis explains why Wyndham Clark received no penalty from the Arnold Palmer Invitational rules committee after he appeared to touch his ball lying in the rough on the 18th hole. #GolfChannel #GolfCentral
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Why Wyndham Clark wasn’t penalized on 18th hole at Bay Hill | Golf Central | Golf Channel
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you were watching you know there’s a
little bit of discussion maybe even more
than a little bit about what happened
with Windam Clark at the 18th hole drove
it right into the rough and then he you
know put his Club down
and this point you’re wondering if he’s
a little too aggressive there does the
ball move with more let’s go down to
Todd well no doubt about it eyebrows
were raised when you look at that video
and there are actually two PGA tour
video officials here on site here at the
Arnold Palmer Invitational and that
video was sent to all the members of the
rules committee here for the Arnold
Palmer Invitational presented by
MasterCard now I talked to Ken tacket
who is the chief referee for the Arnold
Palmer Invitational and he gave me his
reasoning as to why the committee
decided not to penalize wam Clark in
regards to the Ball moving well he went
right to the rule book and this is what
he said if the ball only wobbles
sometimes referred to as oscillating and
stays on or returns to its original spot
the ball has not moved and that is what
the committee determined the ball did
wobble or oscillate but it went back to
its original spot now this has to be
determined by the naked eye now if you
remember a few years ago the USGA and
the RNA changed this rule because
sometimes at high level events with a
lot of cameras when those cameras zoom
in 20x and their HD uh slow-mo that
sometimes those cameras will catch what
the naked eye cannot so here’s what the
naked eye standard has to say in the in
the rulebook for golf when the committee
is deciding questions of fact in making
a ruling the use of video evidence is
limited by the naked eye standard if the
facts shown on the video could not
reasonably have been seen with the naked
eye that video evidence will be
disregarded even if it indicates a
breach of the rules so that’s
interesting there and one other thing in
regards to lightly addressing the ball
or pressing down you can do that and
Kent tet said that you that that that’s
exactly what wendam Clark did so no
penalty across the board for wendam
Clark in the right rough on the 18th
hole here at Bay Hill now Windam Clark
did say after his round that he had a
conversation with Ken tacket Scotty
Sheffer was also involved in this
conversation it happened in the scoring
trailer after that round and it was a
short conversation and again Ken tacket
reiterated to me that the entire rules
committee was a unanimous unanimous
decision that this was not a violation
of the rules that is The Stance of the
PGA Tour and Windam Clark was not
penalized he will start the final round
one off the lead guys would have been a
One-Shot penalty Todd thank you here is
what Wham Clark said to the media after
his round we show you that quote again
uh quite a bit of debate out here I’m
not creating or anything like that or
trying to improve my lie I’m not
cheating excuse me or anything like that
or trying to improve my lie obviously
they zoom in and it makes it look worse
we all talked about it Scotty the rules
official didn’t think it moved so
fortunately that didn’t happen no
penalty what do you think Randle I mean
what’s a sporting event without a good
rules controversy talk about it at night
next day at the water cooler you talk
about it uh I’m not imping anybody’s
character or saying anybody did anything
intentionally here but I would
respectfully disagree with the the rules
officials I would respectfully disagree
with wendam Clark the ball clearly moved
he clearly uh didn’t ground the club
lightly we could take a look at it we’re
going to draw a circle around the golf
ball where you can see and by the way I
don’t need video to see this I saw it
live and I knew the ball moved and I saw
it live and I knew that he did not
ground his Club lightly uh why was he
putting his Club into the ground so
forcefully is beyond me so that’s the
way it played out live I was watching it
like the rest of the world you can
clearly see what in the heck’s going on
so we draw a circle around the golf ball
you see that golf ball is touching the
top of that Circle as he comes into the
golf ball grounds his Club how many
times does he do this once why is he
doing this so many times twice three
times four times why is he doing it so
for forcefully like that the ball
changes position clearly moved you could
see it without uh the circle but the
circle’s there to provide some context
so I would respectfully disagree with
the rules official I think he should
have been pz penalized uh you know and
you begin to wonder what does a tour
player have to do to get a penalty over
the last year year and a half two years
I have seen some violations that go
unpenalized numerous times uh no longer
is it a penalty to uh tap down Spike
marks you can ground a club in the
penalty area you can inadvertently touch
the sand you can you know your ball can
move uh when you address it it’s almost
impossible to get a penalty these days
but when a rules violation at least to
me is as obvious as this and I don’t
need video to see it you you would think
that a penalty would be assessed yeah
the question that I would have here that
I wish I could ask wam Clark right now
would be why did you so aggressively
ground that club not once not twice not
three times but four times what what
were you actually doing there trying to
get a feel for the lie NOP uh you know
there’s a lot of things that that cause
me concern about what we see there but
to me more than the ball moving which
clearly a changed position when you look
at it that might not have been visible
to the naked eye it would have been
visible I think in the video
presentation that was was given later I
think but uh I have the bigger problem
with Club being addressed to the ground
so
strongly
34 Comments
Finally agree with Brandle. Very rarely but this time I do
Lie was definitely improved by grounding that club, that ball moved forward improving the launch. Penalty for sure!
The ball was burrowing deeper into the grass – he made his lie worse.
thats a penalty
Winter rules.
beavis definitely cheated
I saw a major winner move his ball in the rough with his 3 wood at the API on the 4th hole. I was working with his group as the standard bearer. There were no cameras, rules officials, or other players close enough to see, but he definitely knew it moved and didn’t call it out on himself.
Can someone please tell me what else his intention was besides to improve his lie?
Come on guys, this is the last fucking game that is honorable. No other sport has honor like golf. The ball moved it's not even a question this is not a debate he cheated and he knew it
He made his lie worse! 😂 it was obviously lower, also definitely should have been a penalty!
Theres a few things going wrong here. Flattens grass bends blades of grass behind ball to get a better strike on ball. Also, it even looks his club pushed the ball forward, literally touched it.
If anything he made his lie worse it was propped up in te grass and he buried it more
Chamblee thinks hes perfect. He was shit as a player and even shittier as an announcer.
He did exactly what I do with that kind of lie. Flatten the grass to improve your lie. It’s called cheating if you are a pro. It’s called cheating yourself if you are a casual golfer🤷♂️
Appears that the ball just sunk down lower into the grass.. seems the ball was in a worse lie than before. The ball didn't change position laterally, side to side… just lowered, which would have made it more difficult actually to get out.
Cool. Now apply the “reasonable judgment” standard from 1.3b2 to the Shad Tuten placement of his ball at the KFT Championship. It’s the other prong of the Use of Video rule from 2017. (The other being the naked eye test.)
That's nothing I think he was really trying to figure out if he could get under the ball. The ball oscillated and it's allowed to oscillate. This is not even close to Patrick Reed in my opinion. This is laughable that everybody's complaining about this
My goodness that rough is thick…holy shit I can understand why Clarks basically pressing down the grass but yea it's pretty ridiculous.
Wyndham cheated plain and simple. If this would have been Patrick Reed they would have thrown him under the bus. Typical PGAT bullshit.
he should have been. he clearly moved the ball himself, trying to dig the club in there to get a better lie for himself. been hanging out with P.Reed much?
It's definitely close, but I like the no penalty.
as a golf pro, you have to be an idiot to address a ball like that
Damn that’s really disappointing; and to think he beat out Fowler last year for a major…
Looks like he used a wedge to flatten the grass behind the ball and then goes to the bag for a longer club for the actual shot. Why the wedge? Bigger sole to flatten grass.
He wasn't penalized, simply because the PGA Tour did not want to penalize him. He did in-fact have to Rules violations. Rule 8.1b and Rule 9.4a. However, the General Penalty should have been assessed under Rule 8.1b.
The PGA Tour cannot have one of it's premier members and The US Open Champion hit with cheating as the LIV Tour and Money is lurking. But make no mistake about it, when you go after the area behind the ball like Wyndham Clark did you are cheating.
PGA officials are getting as bad as MLB, NBA and NFL officiating.
My opinion was he tried to improve his lie ! Ball moved very slightly but he tamped it down behind ball and nudged it!!!!
The other thing, he always plays so slow. When your more than a full fairway behind the group in front, you need to be put on the clock.
Ummm, The officials use the 'naked eye rule', which of course allows subjectivity into the decision making. However it is curious that the reported here states clearly that "I don't need video to see that the ball has moved" yet uses video and annotation to illustrate his 'point'
Much ado about nothing just clickbait!
Forget about the ball "oscillating" – he DID tamp down the area of the drop to improve his lie. He CHEATED!
How are you guys in the comments saying it’s a penalty when the pga tour rules officials said it wasn’t. It’s laughable
This is another result of LIV. The PGA Tour doesn't want to "alienate" players by assessing penalties. This was a clear violation, and there have been others not called in the last couple of years.