Collin Morikawa Blasts Back at the Penalty, Moments After Matt Fitzpatrick Exposed the Controversial Truth

The game of golf has a lot of rules to it. However, there are certain cases when golfers find themselves in a dicey situation owing to the breach of said regulations. Apparently, this was the case with Collin Morikawa who stood out during a recent incident at the Hero World Challenge that ended a while back in the Bahamas.

Collin Morikawa was slapped with a penalty by the PGA Tour for breaking the rules. However, what surprised the golfing world was the response the American athlete had to the punishment imposed on him regarding the rule breach, something which was exposed by none other than Matt Fitzpatrick!

Collin Morikawa’s response to the rule breach

The 26-year-old golfer put up an amazing performance at the Hero World Challenge to finish T7 with a score of 12-under 276. However, while duking it out against the field of elite golfers at the Tiger Woods-hosted event, Morikawa was met with a two-stroke penalty for his failure to follow the rules of the sport.

The incident took place during the fourth hole of the third round when he was paired up with Fitzpatrick. Moreover, it was the English athlete who reported his PGA Tour colleague for violating the rules leading his score on the third day to read an even-par 72 following the change of the fourth hole to a triple bogey. However, the 2X major champ was visibly frustrated with the penalty.

Responding to the same, he said, “To be honest, I was a little mad at Stephen (Rules official),” as he recounted the instance Stephen Cox, the chief referee, met with him “midway through his(Morikawa’s) warm-up.” Moreover, the 2021 Open Championship winner expressed his annoyance at Cox for not showing up for about five minutes even though the latter asked him to “meet him in the locker room.” Adding on, the 6X PGA Tour champ said, “If you’re going to tell me some news, I think you should show up on time and give it to me.”

Well, it does come off as frustrating when such an instance occurs especially when the athlete is faring well on the greens. However, what could have happened for the men’s golfing body to impose such a penalty on the American pro?

PGAT penalizes Morikawa for rule breach

During the 4th hole in his pair-up with Fitzpatrick, the golfer was judged a two-stroke penalty for violating local model rule G-11. Moreover, he along with his caddie Jonathan Jakovac were assessed for using green-reading material by creating a putting chart using a level on the putting green and subsequently writing a note in the yardage book which was then used during the round.

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However, the penalty would not have been imposed had the chart been devised without using the device or even retaining the same information in memory instead of the note inside the book. Nevertheless, what happened has garnered a lot of attention from the community leading to many supporting the golfer all the while expressing their confusion about the rule.

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