[FlJoePa]

That’s all great, but still paints Tiger as someone who knowingly was going to get away with breaking a rule and apparently had no problem with it.

He knows what he did, and he knew what he had done when they talked to him after his round. It wasn’t until this morning that he claims he unknowingly butchered rule 26 (to an extent that would make an accomplished junior golfer blush) and accepted the penalty.

Since these developments have come out it would obviously be hard to DQ him. My stance has switched to believing he should have just withdrawn.

[Hot Tabasco]

I still can't agree with you because the rule itself does not define how close the drop must be to the first shot as long as it's not closer to the hole.

Per this rule, a player can replay the shot from “as nearly as possible from the spot from which the original ball was last played.” So how near is near is not specifically defined.

So I would still argue that the drop Woods took was totally within the rule as he interpreted it.

And although not relevant to the argument, I would suspect that this particular violation occurs frequently on the tour but is never realized by the player or the spectators........