Matt Fitzpatrick spots golf rule break in awkward moment with US PGA Tour rival
Paige Spiranac plays golf
Matt Fitzpatrick has insisted that it’s “nothing personal” following his involvement in getting Collin Morikawa penalised at the Hero World Challenge. The duo were taking part in the tournament when Fitzpatrick noticed a ploy that has landed his fellow PGA Tour golfer in hot water.
The moment of controversy arose when Morikawa’s caddie, Jonathan Jakovac, was found to have been writing notes in his yardage book. The notes were written down when Jakovac used a spirit level on the practice greens to determine the slope.
While the use of a spirit level isn’t a banned move, the act of writing them in a book is a breach of the rules. After hearing discussions between Morikawa and Jakovac, Matt Fitzpatrick – Morikawa’s playing partner – brought the issue to the attention of the PGA Tour’s chief referee, Stephen Cox.
Morikawa learned of the ruling – a two-stroke penalty – during his warm-up for the closing round.
Amid the controversy, Fitzpatrick has since spoken out about the incident and claimed that it was “nothing personal” against his playing partner. “I wanted to use AimPoint [a putting statistics technique] earlier this year,” The 2022 U.S. Open champion said.
I spoke to my putting coach, Phil Kenyon, about it. He told me that he was pretty certain I can’t write the numbers down or use the AimPoint numbers. So I didn’t do it.
“Then obviously yesterday it happened and I asked Coxy just to clarify what the situation was. I asked the question and he was like: ‘Well, now you’ve asked the question, I need you to tell me what’s going on.’ That was it.
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“It’s nothing personal. Whether it was Tiger Woods or whoever, it’s just I wanted to know because I would have used it earlier this year.”
Following the ruling, Cox shed further light on the issue by saying: “I met with the caddie to explore whether there was any breach and, after reviewing the documentation within the yardage book and the formulation of a putting system/chart, which in itself is not necessarily a breach of the rules, the manner in which you obtain that information and develop that chart is super-key. That’s why this rule is very complex in nature.”
The issue was also addressed by Morikawa who added that while he holds no grudge against Fitzpatrick, he is unclear on the ruling and the time in which he was notified of the outcome.
“We made the mistake,” the 2021 The Open Championship winner said. “From our understanding it was fine to use a level on the practice green and see how putts break and write that down. Obviously it’s not.
“Stephen said apparently to JJ this morning that it was a grey area in all this. Why are there grey areas? There shouldn’t be grey areas in the rules, right? That’s what rules are for.
“I was a little mad at Stephen. He told us to meet him in the locker room. I was waiting in there for around five minutes and he didn’t show up and this was midway through my warm-up. If you are going to tell me some news, I think you should show up on time.”
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