Major champ hits back at cheating accusations: ‘The rule is unfair’

Wyndham Clark has addressed that sticky situation in which he found himself at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

At this rate, Wyndham Clark won’t be going back to Bay Hill next year. It’s just not worth the fuss.

Two years in a row now, the US Open champion has found himself on the wrong end of a rules kerfuffle at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. First he was caught on camera seemingly patting down the grass behind his ball to improve his lie. Then last week the armchair referees blew up social media when Clark took a free drop in the middle of the fairway when his ball embedded in a pitchmark – sparking a debate about whether it was actually his or not.

It should be noted that he was not penalized for either incident, and the 31-year-old is not happy at seeing his name associated with the c-word.

He was, however, keen to set the record straight during ahead of his latest attempt to win The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass.

“Obviously I found out after the round,” Clark explained. “I have a few comments on this rule in general, but I didn’t know.

“They approached me like, ‘Hey, there’s something that’s going to come up in the media about what happened on 3.’ I was like, ‘On 3? I hit it in the middle of the fairway, hit it on the green, and two-putted.’ I’m like, ‘What are you talking about?’ He goes, ‘It’s your drop.’ I was like, ‘What do you mean, did I do an improper drop?’ He said, ‘Well, we didn’t know if you were plugged. Long story short is you’re OK.'”

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Having reviewed the video evidence, Clark was even more bemused by what he was supposed to have done.

“We were some 300 yards away,” he added. “We didn’t see the ball bounce from our distance, and we get up there and it’s plugged. How was I supposed to know? No one told us.

“My frustration was, that if I did get stroked, how is that my fault, when no one told me that I rolled into someone else’s pitch mark?

“That’s one of those rules in golf where it’s like, ‘Why are we making this so complicated?’ I can’t see that, and if the volunteers don’t tell me and I get stroked for something that I didn’t know happened, it kind of seems unfair.”

A statement from the PGA Tour said that “the PGA Tour Rules Committee determined that the ball returned to its own pitch mark, which entitled Clark to free relief”.

“I am glad that it was correct because I wasn’t trying to cheat by any means,” Clark added. “We just walked up, ball was plugged, took an embedded ball rule.”

There’s a lesson here, dear reader. If in doubt, ask an expert.