NASSAU, Bahamas – Collin Morikawa was assessed a two-stroke penalty for violating Model Local Rule G-11, which restricts the use of green-reading materials, on Sunday at the Hero World Challenge.
The infraction, which occurred on the fourth hole during the third round and eventually resulted in a triple bogey-7, stemmed from Morikawa’s caddie, J.J. Jakovac, using a level on the practice putting green before the third round to formulate what officials called “a putting system.”
Statement on Collin Morikawa pic.twitter.com/A2lOtxBpI3
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“Unfortunately, the caddie used a device, a level, on the practice putting green. That’s not a breach of the rule in itself but what he did was he developed that chart or formula as a handwritten note in his yardage book. That’s where the breach occurred,” said the Tour’s chief referee Stephen Cox. “Because he used it while assessing the putt [at No. 4] during his third round he was assessed a two-shot penalty.”
Cox said the fourth hole was the only time Morikawa and Jakovac used the formula during the round.
“We had deemed [the formula and the use of a level] to be an OK thing. And the only reason why we deemed that, what we had in our notes was OK was because [Jakovac] had asked other officials, he had asked other caddies and it sounded as if other people were doing this,” said Morikawa, who closed with a 68 to finish seventh at Albany. “When you ask an official something, you assume it’s right. Apparently if they tell you something wrong one day in a different tournament does not carry on, and I understand that, we made the mistake.”
Cox was informed of the possible breach late Saturday evening by Matt Fitzpatrick, who was paired with Morikawa in the third round. Fitzpatrick said he didn’t inquire right after the round because he forgot.
“I asked Coxy just to clarify what the situation was,” Fitzpatrick said. “I asked the question and he was like, ‘Well, now you’ve asked the question, I need you to tell me what’s going on.’ That was it. Listen, it’s nothing personal. Whether it was Tiger or whoever, it’s just I wanted to know because I would have used it earlier this year.”
Cox then notified Morikawa of the penalty about 15 minutes before his final-round tee time at Albany.
“[Morikawa] was very frustrated, it’s a very complicated rule,” Cox said. “Obviously, when we implemented it back in 2022 there was a huge amount of [green-reading] information.”
Although it’s a relatively new rule, Cox said this is not the first time a Tour player has been assessed a penalty for using illegal green-reading materials.
“These hand-written notes needed to be obtained through traditional methods to protect the fundamental skill of reading greens,” Cox said. “In this situation, the caddie used the level to determine degrees of slope on the [practice] putting green and formulated a putting chart and transferred that into the [yardage] book. Had he used traditional methods and estimated with his feet or other means the percentages of slope that formula would be fine.”
