The tendency for the Hero World Challenge to produce controversial moments has been highlighted once again after two-time champion Collin Morikawa was given a penalty just before his final round.
Morikawa's caddie, Jonathan Jakovac, was found to have used numbers he had written in a greens book to provide advice while a putt was being lined up on the fourth hole of round three. Jakovac had deployed a spirit level when practicing greens to derive numbers; that in itself is not prohibited, but writing it in a book is. Morikawa's playing partner, Matt Fitzpatrick, overheard the discussion between player and caddy and later asked PGA Tour chief referee Stephen Cox if this was allowed. Morikawa was informed of the sanction during his warm-up for the final round.
Cox said: “I met with the caddy to investigate whether there had been a violation and, after reviewing the documentation in the meter book and formulating a putting system/map, which in itself is not necessarily a violation of the rules, the way in which you obtain that information and develop that graph is super key. Therefore, this rule is very complex in nature.”
Morikawa, 26, insisted he had no problems with Fitzpatrick but seemed unclear about the precise nature of the rule and unhappy with the way the matter was handled. “We made the mistake,” the Californian said. “From our understanding, it was fine to use a level on the practice green and see how putts break and write that down. It clearly isn't.
“Stephen apparently told JJ this morning that it was a gray area in all of this. Why are there gray areas? There shouldn't be any gray areas in the rules, right? There are rules for that.
'I was a bit angry with Stephen. He said we should meet him in the locker room. I waited there for about five minutes and he didn't show up and this was half way through my warm up. If you're going to tell me something new, I think you should show up on time.'
Fitzpatrick had forgotten what he heard until the subject of putting came up during a discussion Saturday evening. “I wanted to use AimPoint (a putting statistics technique) earlier this year,” he said. “I talked about it with my putting coach, Phil Kenyon. He told me he was pretty sure I can't write down the numbers or use the AimPoint numbers. So I didn't do it.
“Then apparently it happened yesterday and I just asked Coxy to clarify what the situation was. I asked the question and he said, “Now that you've asked the question, I want you to tell me what's going on.” That was it.
“It's not personal. Whether it was Tiger Woods or whoever, I just wanted to know because I would have used it earlier this year.”
In a previous Hero World Challenge, Henrik Stenson and Jordan Spieth were penalized for playing from the wrong tee box. Patrick Reed received a two-shot penalty for cutting sand in a waste area during practice swings here in 2019.
While Morikawa finished seventh at 12 under, Scottie Scheffler capped his 2023 with a win in Albany. The world number 1 took the trophy by three shots from Austrian Sepp Straka, at 20 under par. The returning Woods closed with a 72 for an encouraging even-par 72 hole aggregate.