Pat,
you weren't under the scrutiny of TV cameras. What would you have done if you had gone borderline crazy about getting it right and then a viewer calls in to say that the slow motion replay shows you still missed the spot by a few millimeters? Surely you would have accepted the penalty, had one been imposed on you, but if no penalty had been the decision, would you have contested it?
Ulrich
Ulrich,
No idea. I called well over 10 penalties on myself during my tour career. Had 2 on the same green on two separate occasions
I also understand that perfect replacement is next to impossible. But when you can really see a big difference, as In the Lexi re-mark....
Funny story. In the Hawaiian Open one year, I was the last to finish on number 15 in the first round. I had a very short putt to finish out. As I hit it, it looked like it might have moved. I made the putt, but asked my caddy if he saw the ball move? He wasn't watching, and had no idea. It's a 40 yard walk to 16 tee, and my playing partners already were gone, and had no idea I had an issue as I tapped in.
My caddie and I talked about it, and I told him I was pretty sure it moved, but given that I had had a number of penalties for the same thing, I was starting to think I was imagining things, I always run pretty close to crazy any way
I decided to call the penalty, and told the guys on 16 tee. They didn't see anything, but I moved past.
After the round, my caddy was checking the scores, and a tv cameraman came up to him to tell him he saw my ball move through the camera as they did rehearsal! He was happy I had called it, and checked my score to see if I did. At least I wasn't seeing things!!
The rule is so different now, I really don't know what my reaction in Rahm's place would be.