Tiger Woods misses cut after bizarre 2-stroke penalty

A rough day for Tiger Woods got even rougher when he was assessed a bizarre 2-stroke penalty mid-round. The penalty ultimately led to him just missing the cut at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.

Here’s the gist of what happened.

At the fifth hole, Tiger sprayed his tee shot right into what he believed was a grassy area with vines.

GOLF

He called over another player, Martin Kaymer, who agreed it was an embedded lie deserving of a drop.

GOLF

Woods went on to make a 5 on the hole. But officials were notified by two fans walking with the group that the area was sandy and thus, Woods couldn’t take a drop. Not sure if I would call this lie sandy but you know, it is Abu Dhabi. The whole course is on a desert.

GOLF

At the 11th hole, officials approached Tiger informing him of the rules violation and said they would discuss it further after the round was complete. Woods finished at +1 on his card, good enough to make the cut. The head official told him otherwise, saying the 2-shot penalty was legit. Tiger was given a 7 on the hole and was +3 for the tourney, missing the cut. The first time that’s ever happened at a regular European Tour event.

When asked if he was annoyed at himself for the ruling, Tiger responded by saying, “No, that’s why I called Martin over, to make sure we thought it was embedded. So I had a player come over and verify it and um, evidently I broke a rule.”

Yes, he looked pissed and yes, he looked DERP-Y. Ratted out by two fans who, presumably, have no lives and are probably high fiving quite awkwardly in the clubhouse.

GOLF

[GOLF Channel]