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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. <\/p>\n
But first to recap\u2026 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. \u00a0<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
The penalty decision prompted an outpouring of global criticism and scorn that such a rule \u2013 and \u201ctrial by TV\u201d \u2013 could have such serious (and, in many colleagues\u2019 and fans\u2019 view, hugely unfair) consequences.<\/p>\n
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: <\/p>\n
If an infraction can\u2019t be seen with the naked eye, there\u2019s no penalty, even if the video shows otherwise. If a tournament committee determines that a player does \u201call that can be reasonably expected to make an accurate estimation or measurement\u201d 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. <\/p>\n
The response to the decision was mixed. \u201cThere\u2019s more grey area than clear definition,\u201d said Stacy Lewis. \u201cIt didn\u2019t really clarify anything.\u201d <\/p>\n
Some LPGA pros are already referring to the decision as \u201cThe Lexi Rule\u201d but USGA and R&A leaders insist that\u2019s not the case, that it was already a work in progress; while LPGA commissioner Mike Whan said the rule simply got \u201cfast-tracked\u201d after the Thompson controversy.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think it changes Lexi\u2019s ruling at all,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cIt probably changes Anna\u2019s.\u201d <\/p>\n
Anna Nordqvist lost the U.S. Women\u2019s 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 \u2013 and she lost the play-off to Brittany Lang. <\/p>\n
Returning to Lexi\u2026 during this week\u2019s 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. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI mark my ball with a dot and that\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thompson said she hit a terrible first putt in her birdie attempt at the par-three 17th hole, and was \u201cpretty mad at the first putt because I put a terrible stroke on it.\u201d Relying on advice from her father, she went ahead and marked the ball to give her time to regroup. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was just like, \u2018Lexi, just relax. Mark the putt. It\u2019s a major championship, you don\u2019t need to go up and miss this little putt.\u2019 I went and marked it and just took my time with my practice stroke, took a deep breath and made sure I made it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have seen the video and I can see where they\u2019re 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s one of my favourite tournaments and it\u2019s always a dream of mine to just see myself jumping into Poppie\u2019s Pond. I\u2019ve worked my whole life to have my name on major championship trophies, especially that one. It\u2019s a very special week for me with all the history behind it and I played amazing that week. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Not that it is much consolation, but the then 19-year-old Thomson won the Kraft Nabisco Championship \u2013 forerunner of the AMA \u2013 in 2014, for her first and only major championship title to date.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":6962,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[125],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}