For the fourth time in 2013, Tiger Woods has been the center of a rules controversy.
After the second round of the BMW Championship on Friday, Tiger Woods was penalized two shots by PGA Tour rules officials for moving his ball on the first hole of the round.
Woods hit his approach shot to the 363-yard par-4 first hole long of the green and into some brush. While trying to move some loose impediments, Woods' ball was spotted by PGA Tour Entertainment cameras having moved. Woods never replaced the ball to its original position, meaning he would be subject to a two-stroke penalty for not doing so. Had he placed the ball back where it was, it would have cost him just one shot.
Woods had already made double-bogey 6 on the hole, meaning the two-stroke penalty made it a quadruple-bogey 8. Ouch. Woods enters the third round on Saturday now seven shots in back of Brandt Snedeker and Jim Furyk.
The world No. 1 did not speak with the media after the round, refusing to comment on a situation that reportedly had him so frustrated that he punched a wall.
"Let's just say there was frustration," said PGA Tour rules official Slugger White to Golfweek, insinuating some drywall damage. "He was a little disbelieving."
Three other times this year, Woods has been the subject of rules scrutiny.
In his season-opening event at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, Woods took improper relief from what he believed to be an embedded ball in a grassy part of a bunker. That cost him two shots.
At the Masters, Woods' third shot to the par-5 15th in the second round struck the flagstick and caromed back into a guarding water hazard. Woods' ensuing drop was not made "as close as possible" to the spot where he originally struck his third shot and was penalized two shots by Masters officials after the round was over following a call-in from a former PGA Tour player.
Then at The Players Championship, Woods pulled his tee shot at the par-4 14th in the final round into a water hazard. Woods turned his head in disgust, not seeing where the ball crossed the margin of the lateral water hazard. Woods had to rely on his playing partner to agree to Woods' version of where it crossed the hazard line, even though he never saw it cross.
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