World No1's indiscretions are not isolated incidents and provide an unfortunate sub-plot to yet another patchy year in majors
It serves as a recurring theme when in conversation with tournament top brass that even the top golfers in the world can be completely ignorant of the rules of the game.
The level of assistance afforded to them even permits that lack of knowledge. Bubba Watson admitted at the Masters earlier this year: "I don't know the rule book, because I always call in the rules official."
Thankfully, the comparisons between Watson and Tiger Woods begin and end with their nationality or else tournament golf could have turned into a playground long ago. The world No1 is a player who is known to have a deep understanding of the history, honour and rules of golf. Which renders Woods's controversial 2013 – on the course, this time – somewhat curious.
Woods has won five times this year but arguably more striking than that statistic are the four separate occasions in which his actions have attracted scrutiny. The latest arrived on Friday at the BMW Championship in Chicago, where Woods was retrospectively punished two shots after TV evidence showed his ball moved as Woods attended to some nearby foliage, well off the 1st green. The PGA Tour, intriguingly, was not slow to publicise footage of the incident. Make no mistake, the ball move was blatant. Woods's brief pause after touching a pine cone was also noticeable.
Even after witnessing that tape, Woods refused to accept the ball had moved. Which makes this case a clear exception to golfing normality. Rather, he insisted it had oscillated, as would be within the rules.
To be fair to the waiting media, when they were eventually permitted a chance to question Woods over the affair – a day later – he was handed a decent grilling. All too often, questions posed towards golfers involve the loft of their five iron or spin-rate of bunker shots.
But still, Woods was unrepentant. He said: "The one at Augusta after going through it on Saturday morning, yeah, I did take the wrong drop. But yesterday I didn't feel like I did anything, and as I said, I described it in there and I said: 'I moved the pine cone right behind my ball.'
"I feel like the ball oscillated, and I just left it. Evidently it wasn't enough."
The point was repeated, and repeated. No mea culpa, quite the opposite.
The Augusta incident to which Woods refers saw him again punished two shots for taking an incorrect drop after his ball found a water hazard. Woods's arrogance, in publicly pointing out that he could control a shot to the tune of two yards second time round, played a part in his undoing.
In what was an embarrassing episode for the Masters, those running the tournament accepted the blame for not bringing the matter to Woods's attention immediately after the completion of his second round. Again, TV was key here but the issue of how infractions come to light should not detract from the bigger issue of why they have taken place at all.
It was debatable whether or not Woods should have been allowed to continue in that major. Many believed he should simply have withdrawn. The suspicion that his importance – not least to television companies – in the context of the event rendered either scenario impossible was hard to ignore.
There's more. Woods's year had started with the ignominy of a missed cut in a European Tour event in Abu Dhabi after he wrongly took a "free" drop in round two and, therefore, incurred a two-stroke sanction. Woods had the consolation of a $3m (£1.9m) appearance fee when departing the United Arab Emirates but the feeling resonated that he should have queried himself to a heavier degree before taking free relief from a sanded area through the green. As should his playing partner, Martin Kaymer, who okayed the drop.
A quadruple spell of controversy is completed with a glance back to the Players Championship in May. Woods gained unwanted attention, if not incurring a penalty, on account of a drop taken after his shot found water from the 14th tee at Sawgrass.
Placed in isolation, any of the above would afford Woods negative attention. Together, they form an unfortunate sub-plot to a year which has otherwise been categorised by the 37-year-old's inability to end his major drought despite routine brilliance elsewhere.
There are those who remain quick to denigrate both the game of golf and Woods himself at any available opportunity. Golf is treated as a chummy closed shop by its' critics and Woods's public profile will never recover from the misdemeanours which wrecked both his marriage and place in American sporting hearts. Yet even through that, his integrity when at his place of work was never subject to question.
Woods famously insisted he didn't "get to play by different rules" in 2010 in relation to his personal life. In the context of his golfing life, it is safe to say 2013 has now been overshadowed by a clutch of instances in which the finest player of a golfing generation should have known better.
Tiger Woods
Golf
US sports
Ewan Murray
theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds