Collin Morikawa’s decision to move ball during Masters sparks cheating debate

Collin Morikawa’s opening spherical at the Masters didn’t come with out a little bit of controversy on Thursday.

The golf rule e book got here into dialog when Morikawa was organising for a putt on the sixth gap when one of many Masters stay streams bought a close-up view of the 12th-ranked golfer on the planet marking his ball on the inexperienced.

However the video appeared as if Morikawa was inserting his ball too far in entrance of his marker on the inexperienced after which shifting the marker simply behind the ball at that spot, which might be a penalty.

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Collin Morikawa of america performs his shot from the seventh tee throughout the first spherical of the 2023 Masters Event at Augusta Nationwide Golf Membership on April 06, 2023 in Augusta, Georgia. (Christian Petersen/Getty Pictures)

Morikawa is likely one of the least controversial golfers on the PGA Tour, so a transfer like this to realize some kind of edge within the event didn’t appear to be one thing he’d do. 

And that’s why context is vital right here.

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Your entire scenario apparently wasn’t proven within the clip as social media customers started defending Morikawa.

Morikawa’s ball moved a bit, which signifies that he was allowed to position it again to the place it initially was. Then, one social media consumer discovered the complete video of what occurred to Morikawa.

You possibly can clearly see Morikawa’s ball appears to be disturbing him whereas he’s standing over it, forcing him to again off. He additionally seems to be to his taking part in companion, Matt Fitzpatrick, to make it possible for the place he’s inserting the ball is okay with him.

Collin Morikawa of america performs a shot from a bunker on the fifteenth gap throughout the first spherical of the 2023 Masters Event at Augusta Nationwide Golf Membership on April 06, 2023 in Augusta, Georgia. (Christian Petersen/Getty Pictures)

Ultimately, Morikawa’s spherical wasn’t docked any strokes as he completed tied for thirteenth after taking pictures 3-under (69) on the spherical.

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Morikawa was off to a sizzling begin, discovering a birdie on the scoreable second gap in addition to the seventh to complete the entrance 9 with a 34 (2-under). Nevertheless, “Amen Nook” didn’t assist Morikawa’s rating as he took his first and solely bogey of the spherical on the thirteenth.

However he would make up for that and extra on the fifteenth and 16 holes with back-to-back birdies on his option to a 35 on the again 9.

Collin Morikawa of america seems to be on on the 18th gap throughout the first spherical of the 2023 Masters Event at Augusta Nationwide Golf Membership on April 06, 2023 in Augusta, Georgia. (Andrew Redington/Getty Pictures)

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Morikawa will head into his second spherical Friday with Fitzpatrick once more, this time teeing off at 10:18 a.m. after getting out on Augusta Nationwide at 1:24 p.m. on Thursday.