WATCH: Tiger Woods Avoids Penalty After 'Scooping' Ball
Woods appeared to have gotten away with a rules breach during the Hero World Challenge


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The 14-time major winner appeared to scoop his ball out of a bush during the Hero World Challenge
Tiger Woods Avoids Penalty After 'Scooping' Ball
Were this a major week, Tiger Woods may have been the centre of a huge rules controversy.
That's because the 14-time major winner managed to avoid a penalty after scooping his ball out of a bush on the final hole during the second round of the Hero World Challenge.
Woods found himself down the right of the finishing hole with a tricky lie in a bush, needing to kneel down and grip down the shaft to chip it out.
He took a short and quick swipe at the ball and managed to get it back towards the fairway, although slow motion cameras revealed that the ball had stayed on the face for some time.
Watch the incident below -
The 14-time major winner got away without penalty due to not knowing he had double-hit or scooped the ball at the time.
Related: 2019/20 UK and Ireland Top 100 Courses Revealed
"I didn't feel like I violated any rules," Woods said after his round.
"I was trying to play a shot but the rules committee said they may have been a violation. I didn't feel like I hit it twice but under super slow-mo you could see I made contact twice."
The PGA Tour's vice president of rules and competitions Mark Russell said, "We had to look at high-speed, slow-motion video to determine that the ball probably did stay on the clubface a little too long. But there was no way he could've known that.
Related: WATCH: John Senden's driver snaps mid-swing
"Basically, if the player didn't know he did that [double-hit it] and the only way you can tell is by using this type of slow-motion technology, he's exempt from the rules, so there's no penalty there."
Related: 5 things to know about the new Golf Rules 2019
Coincidentally, from 1st Jan 2019, double-hits will count as 'one stroke', due to the new golf rules instead of two.
He eventually double-bogeyed the 18th and is two under after 36 holes.
Jon Rahm and Henrik Stenson share the halfway lead at 10 under after a bogey-free nine under par 63 from Rahm and a 66 from Stenson.
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Elliott Heath is our Senior Staff Writer and has been with Golf Monthly since early 2016. He graduated in Sports Journalism in 2016 and currently manages the Golf Monthly news, courses and travel sections as well as our large Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. Elliott has interviewed some huge names in the golf world including Sergio Garcia, Thomas Bjorn, Bernd Wiesberger and Scotty Cameron as well as a number of professionals on the DP World and PGA Tours. He has also covered the 2022 Masters from Augusta National as well as three Open Championships including at Carnoustie in 2018 when he was inside the ropes with Tiger Woods. He has played 31 of our Top 100 golf courses, with his favourites being both Sunningdales, Woodhall Spa, Old Head and Alwoodley. He currently plays at West Byfleet Golf Club in Surrey, where his handicap index floats anywhere between 4-6. His golfing highlight is making albatross on the 9th hole on the Hotchkin Course at Woodhall Spa, and he has made one hole-in-one.
Elliott is currently playing:
Driver: Honma TR20
3 wood: TaylorMade SIM2 Max
2 iron: Mizuno MP-18 MMC Fli-Hi
Irons: Mizuno MP5 4-PW
Wedges: Cleveland RTX ZipCore 50, 54, 58
Putter: Odyssey White Hot OG #5
Ball: Titleist Pro V1x
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