Lexi Thompson has been keeping a low profile since incurring a controversial four-stroke penalty that cost her victory in the first UIS LPGA major of the year. This week she returns to action, in the Volunteers of America Texas Shootout Presented by JTBC, and she met the media on the eve of the tournament.
But first to recap… The penalty came after a viewer submitted feedback via LPGA.com during the final round that Thompson had improperly replaced her ball on the 17th green the day before. After being reviewed by LPGA rules officials, Thompson was assessed two strokes under Rule 16-1b for the breach of Rule 20-7c (Playing from the Wrong Place) and assessed an additional two strokes for signing for an incorrect scorecard under Rule 6-6d.
The leader by three strokes when she received news of the penalty, Thompson trailed by two after learning of the ruling. She then rallied with a birdie on three of her last five holes to force a playoff with So Yeon Ryu, but lost on the first extra hole.
The penalty decision prompted an outpouring of global criticism and scorn that such a rule – and “trial by TV” – could have such serious (and, in many colleagues’ and fans’ view, hugely unfair) consequences.
In the immediate aftermath, the guardians of the Rules of Golf moved admirably quickly to review the situation. The result of their deliberations was Decision 34-3/10, which limits video evidence in two ways:
If an infraction can’t be seen with the naked eye, there’s no penalty, even if the video shows otherwise. If a tournament committee determines that a player does “all that can be reasonably expected to make an accurate estimation or measurement” in determining a line or position to play from or to spot a ball, then there will be no penalty even if video replay later shows that to be wrong.
The response to the decision was mixed. “There’s more grey area than clear definition,” said Stacy Lewis. “It didn’t really clarify anything.”
Some LPGA pros are already referring to the decision as “The Lexi Rule” but USGA and R&A leaders insist that’s not the case, that it was already a work in progress; while LPGA commissioner Mike Whan said the rule simply got “fast-tracked” after the Thompson controversy.
Meanwhile, LPGA pros were contemplating how the new decision would have been applied to Thompson at the ANA Inspiration if the decision had been in effect at the time.
“I don’t think it changes Lexi’s ruling at all,” Lewis said. “It probably changes Anna’s.”
Anna Nordqvist lost the U.S. Women’s Open in a play-off last year after she was penalised two shots for grazing a few grains of sand taking back a five-iron in a fairway bunker. The violation was spotted in a high-definition video replay – and she lost the play-off to Brittany Lang.
Returning to Lexi… during this week’s press conference she maintained that it had not been her intention to improperly move her ball. Thompson then explained the process by which she lines up her ball when putting.
“I mark my ball with a dot and that’s where I focus my eyes on, where I want to make contact. When I marked it, I just rotated my ball to line up my dot to where the ball would make contact.”
Thompson said she hit a terrible first putt in her birdie attempt at the par-three 17th hole, and was “pretty mad at the first putt because I put a terrible stroke on it.” Relying on advice from her father, she went ahead and marked the ball to give her time to regroup.
“I was just like, ‘Lexi, just relax. Mark the putt. It’s a major championship, you don’t need to go up and miss this little putt.’ I went and marked it and just took my time with my practice stroke, took a deep breath and made sure I made it.
“I have seen the video and I can see where they’re coming from with it. It might have been me, I guess, rotating the ball. Those greens were absolutely perfect. The whole week there was nothing in my line to be moving it from or anything. I have no reason behind it. I did not mean it at all.”
When asked about what has been the most difficult part of the last several weeks, Thompson broke down crying, and said going through the experience was the most difficult.
“That’s one of my favourite tournaments and it’s always a dream of mine to just see myself jumping into Poppie’s Pond. I’ve worked my whole life to have my name on major championship trophies, especially that one. It’s a very special week for me with all the history behind it and I played amazing that week. I don’t think I’ve ever played any better. For that to happen, it was just kind of a nightmare. It was still a very special week, it always is.”
(Not that it is much consolation, but the then 19-year-old Thomson won the Kraft Nabisco Championship – forerunner of the AMA – in 2014, for her first and only major championship title to date.)
