'I Play By The Rules, I Promise' - Morikawa Clears Up Rules Incident

The first round of any tournament is often the least dramatic, with players looking to build a solid foundation to attack the rest of the tournament. However, when it comes to a Major championship, anything can happen and, in the case of Collin Morikawa, that appeared to be true, with the American caught up in some early tournament drama.

What drama you may ask? Well, during the first day at The Masters, a video of Morikawa marking and replacing his ball on the 6th hole sent social media wild, with the two-time Major winner eventually clarifying that: "The ball moved, and then I moved it back. Pretty standard now. Pretty routine in our rules book thankfully". Along with the explanation, Morikawa released a tweet shortly after his three-under-par round of 69. 

In the tweet, which included a full video of the incident, the American wrote: "Here’s the full video…Ball moved as I addressed it, so I threw the coin down in no specific place, replaced the ball to the original spot and then moved my marker to the original spot (from where I threw it). I play by the rules, I promise."

Initially, when Morikawa was still on the course we must add, many were indeed a bit questioning of the situation but, a few hours later, a second piece of footage was released as it showed the full process of the ball rolling backwards as he addressed it. After that, he replaced it back to where it was originally.  

In the media scrum after his first round, Morikawa added: "Look, if I showed up to this course and it was firm and fast, I probably would never put my putter down because you never know when that's going to just trickle on. Now it was on a little mound and moved and nothing wrong with that."

For those wondering, if Morikawa was deemed to have not replaced his ball to the exact spot, he would have received a two stroke penalty under Rule 14: Procedures for Ball: Marking, Lifting and Cleaning; Replacing on Spot; Dropping in Relief Area; Playing from Wrong Place.

What's more, Rule 13.1d also states, if a ball moves on the putting green then it "must always be replaced on its original spot, regardless of what caused it to move. The ball must be played from its new spot only if the ball had not been lifted and replaced before it moved."