NASSAU (Bahamas) — Collin Morikawa was docked 2 strokes Sunday morning, in what is one of the most bizarre rulings in PGA Tour history.
You can read more about this week’s “The Rules of Golf Can Be Wacky” here . The part of the story which could only be revealed after the round is how the violation was reported. How did Morikawa, his caddie JJ Jakovac and the players react to this news?
Stephen Cox, the chief referee of the PGA Tour, confirmed that Matt Fitzpatrick brought the issue to light. The Englishman was accused of ratting out Morikawa, but this is not the case. He was looking for confirmation on a rule that went into effect 2022 when the USGA, R&A, and R&A prohibited the green-reading book, which took much of the art out of reading putts.
Fitzpatrick was on the fourth green when Morikawa asked his caddie for the yardage and saw Jakovac consult his yardage book to find the answer.
Fitzpatrick, who finished T-4 on Sunday, explained that he had wanted to use AimPoint in the past. I spoke with my putting instructor, Phil Kenyon. He said that he is pretty sure I cannot write down the numbers or use AimPoint numbers. You know, I did not do it. Then yesterday, it happened again and I asked Coxy to clarify the situation. I asked him the question. He said, “Well, you asked the questions, I want you to tell what’s happening.” That was all.
It’s not personal. It doesn’t matter if it was Tiger, or someone else. I just wanted to know so I could have used the card earlier in the year.
Fitzpatrick did not bring up the topic directly with Morikawa, and he even forgot about it once the match was over. He did not text Cox until much later in the evening.
It wasn’t until someone started talking about putting in the house where I was staying that I realized what was going on. Fitzpatrick remembered that he was thinking, “Oh, [shoot], as if I had this question.”
Morikawa clarified another mystery: How could he have been so certain that Jakovac had only broken the rule once on the third-hole on Saturday?
“I promise you, it only happened on the fourth-hole because he misread a putt on the first hole using his feet. I fired him after the first round for reading my putts,” Morikawa said.
Morikawa said that Fitzpatrick did not have any problem bringing to light the possible violation, noting “He did what every competitor would do.”
Morikawa also agreed with his caddie who asked another rules official whether measuring the slope of the green using a level device is legal. It is. However, a player or caddie cannot write these figures in their yardage book.
“He asked other officials and other caddies, it sounded like other people did this.” “When you ask an official, you assume that it is correct,” Morikawa explained. “Well, it seems that if an official tells you something incorrectly in one tournament, they don’t continue to do so. I get that. We made a mistake.”
Morikawa asked: “Why are gray areas there? It’s not fair that there are gray areas in rules. “That’s why rules exist.”
Morikawa was frustrated with the way he received the alert. Cox texted Jakovac the first time in the morning, a few minutes before Morikawa teed off. Jakovac did not say anything at first to Morikawa because he didn’t want to worry him if the issue was resolved. Cox sent another text after Morikawa had finished his warmup, asking for a locker room meeting.
“We went there, and we were looking for him. He was nowhere to be seen,” Morikawa stated.
Cox was punctual, and he did his best to ensure that he had everything in order. Morikawa however was just as frustrated by the process of the case as he was the final ruling.
Morikawa asked. If I broke the rule, then I’m responsible for it.
His third round score went from 70 to 72 after a two-stroke penalty. Before he even teed off his task of catching the leader and eventual winner Scottie Scheffler had grown from six to eight shots behind. This is a mistake that he and Jakovac will likely never repeat.
