Rickie Fowler, Jimmy Walker and Justin Thomas share their views and immediate reactions to the Lexi Thompson rules infraction which cost her the ANA Inspiration title.
Here’s what happened:
PGA Championship winner Jimmy Walker:
I didn’t actually see what happened yesterday. I kind of heard about it, sounded like it was a really, really bad raw deal. But I don’t think people should be able to call in like that, especially with as many cameras that are going on and some players have so many more cameras on them, it’s just‑‑ I think it’s unfair.
There’s no other sport where anybody could call in and say, oh, that was a foul. It just doesn’t happen. I mean, I don’t know why we’re the exception, you get to do that. Nobody gets to call in ins and outs in tennis. It just doesn’t happen. I think we need to change that.
Former World number one Tiger Woods:
Viewers at home should not be officials wearing stripes. Let’s go @Lexi, win this thing anyway.
— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) April 3, 2017
Sony Open winner Justin Thomas:
I know she’s getting blown up and also I know she’s – the competitor she is, she’s probably really upset and really heartbroken. I don’t know how she played. I mean, that shot she hit in, you could see she was getting emotional and to try to have to putt after that was tough. I mean, it had to kind of be a very odd feeling the rest of the field, to have the entire gallery chanting Lexi’s name.
It’s kind of how like it felt when I was playing Jordan in the Match Play last year in Austin. I was like, nobody in this gallery wants me to win. Everyone was pulling for Lexi. Everybody wanted her to win. I feel like at some point this week, I’ll reach out and just say something. But yeah, it was a bummer.
Honda Classic winner Rickie Fowler:
I didn’t get to catch‑‑ I didn’t get to catch it live, other than on social media. I was flying here. But I got to see a lot of the reaction on social media. And then saw the video after the fact.
But seeing the reaction from everyone and kind of how it was handled, yeah, I think we’ve seen some stuff in the past year that is not making the game look very good at all. There’s no other sport where people can call or e‑mail in or contact officials regarding an issue. I mean, there’s plenty of circumstances in plenty of other sports where a call could go a completely different way, and these decisions are left up to officials. There’s not people sitting at home dictating this or, you know, in this case, having a lot of effect on the outcome of a major. It’s not just another tournament.
So it was really unfortunate to see kind of how it was handled. In my eyes, coming 24 hours after the fact, to me, you know, things should be handled the day of. I mean, you tee off‑‑ once you sign your scorecard, that’s kind of it. I feel like, you know, it’s somewhat like when you look at if something were to come up Monday after the tournament, the tournament’s done. So where do things close off? If something happened Thursday in the tournament, something were to come up on Sunday, then you go back and enforce a penalty there, there’s ‑ it just goes back to, there shouldn’t be anyone outside of the officials being able to make this call.
You look at someone like Tiger, who has spent his career obviously every shot, every movement has been on camera, and yeah, if we go back and look at video of, you know, all kind of players or things through the years, you probably can find rules infractions.
Now, were these people trying to do that? I would be willing to bet no.
Yeah, like I said, it’s unfortunate. I feel bad for Lexi. The way she handled it, like I said, I didn’t get to see everything live or all the footage. But everything was saying how well she did handle it and the way she fought was impressive. Yeah, she’s got some‑‑ plenty more majors in her future.
Photo: Jeff Gross/Getty Images
