Tiger Woods Misses Cut After Two Fans Help Earn Him a Two-Stroke Penalty

Tiger Woods missed the fairway on 5th hole at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship today. As you can see, these were not ideal golf conditions. So Tiger invited another golfer – Martin Kaymer – to come inspect the lie. Tiger thought the ball was embedded and deserved a drop. Kaymer concurred.

So Tiger took his drop, hit the ball back into more golf-able conditions and continued on with his round. At the 11th hole, course officials informed Tiger that he had committed a rules violation. As you can see, Tiger’s shot after the drop on the 5th kicked up quite a bit of dirty / dusty particulates. Well, a couple fans approached officials and ratted on Tiger, saying he shouldn’t have been allowed a drop because the area was “sandy.” Tiger was assessed a two-stroke penalty which dropped his score from +1 to +3, causing him to miss the cut.

Tiger didn’t say much about the ruling after the round, but he did leave officials with this, per Guyism:

“No, that’s why I called Martin over, to make sure we thought it was embedded. So I had a player come over and verify it and um, evidently I broke a rule.”

If you’re keeping track at home, this week, Tiger is NOT back. Got that? Tiger Woods is NOT back.

[Golf Channel, Getty]