Tiger Woods Penalty: Golfer Penalized After Videographer Notices Error

Tiger Woods faced a two-stroke penalty at the BMW Championship, and it’s all thanks to the work of a sharp-eyed videographer.

The penalty took place on the first green. As Tiger approached his ball, he moved a loose impediment and caused the ball to move slightly.

Woods did not take an extra stroke, but once rules officials saw the tape they determined that Tiger would receive a two-stroke penalty.

“Tiger evidently hit it over the green and was moving some loose impediments,” said Slugger White, vice president of Rules and Competitions for the PGA Tour. “He had a pretty large loose impediment behind his ball, which he moved. And there was a little stick of some sort kind of obviously next to his ball, and when he rolled that, the ball in fact moved. He knew there was movement there, and was very adamant that it oscillated, (But) stayed (in its original spot). But this video was at the site, and the ball did, in fact, move.

The penalty meant that Tiger Woods shot a 1-over 72 instead of 1-under 70 on Friday. He did recover well after the first hole, shooting 3 under par on the remaining 17 holes.

Tiger Woods didn’t put up an argument, but he reportedly didn’t agree with the penalty. He did not sign his scorecard until after officials showed him video of the incident.

“[He was] very frustrated,” White said.

As CBS notes, the penalty brought about an interesting pairing on Saturday. After Tiger Woods received the penalty, he was matched with Sergio Garcia, with whom he has feuded over the course of the year. In May, Sergio joked that he would invite Woods over for dinner during the U.S. Open and “serve fried chicken.” He later apologized.

For Tiger Woods, the penalty may end up being costly. On Saturday he stood four shots behind leader Jim Furyk.