If we tracked every mark & replace down to the dimple, nobody would ever win any golf tournament anywhere in the world. Everybody would be DQ'd, usually within 4-5 holes, if even that far.
It is an impossible standard to meet. And if we allow this kind of ticky-tack, one or two dimple crap to continue every time some dimwit with an HDTV can prove it, the game will be destroyed.
If this is true, then the simple answer would have been for the committee to rule that Harrington's ball moved forward and then came to rest in the same position, or at least as close as possible to the naked eye. That's why I made my statement earlier that if he had shown ANY indication - calling an official, remarking, etc - then he likely would have been absolved.
This is not to you, Shiv, but for everyone else, talk to a Rules Official sometime - they go out of their way to believe players. If Paddy had indicated to ANYONE that he knew he moved his ball, but that he believed it rocked back into the original position, I just can't believe he wouldn't have been given a green light. The official probably would have advised him to re-mark, and the committee would likely have concluded that he replaced the ball in the position he believed it was, as required by the rule. Heck, the emailer probably wouldn't have even sent in an email!
As it stands, the simple facts in evidence are that he moved his ball and did not replace it. Would it help golf at all if they instituted some sort of standard of "well, it moved X dimples forward - X and under is okay, but X plus epsilon is a penalty and then a DQ if the scorecard is incorrect".
If you want to see Rules crap really start embarrassing golf, then introduce subjectivity, and ignore evidence when it is plainly visible.
By all means, let's have a Tuck Rule for golf!