LOS ANGELES — Twice this PGA Tour season, internet rules sleuths have tried to ruin players’ wins by breaking magnifying glasses. Each time, nothing came of it.
The first lawsuit came at the Farmers Insurance Open, where France’s Mathieu Pabon was accused, of course, on Golf Twitter of pushing down the grass around his ball on the par-5 18th hole at Torrey Pines (Pabon hit the miracle shot). (with a birdie). The second time was at Pebble Beach, and some wondered if Windham Clark, who had dug an animal hole, had gotten relief (Clark won after the tournament was shortened to 54 holes).
In both cases, it turned out to be a “nothing to see here” situation. But that doesn’t mean there are people who will try to catch Hideki Matsuyama red-handed during the back nine of Sunday’s Genesis Invitational.
After starting the sixth day behind Patrick Cantlay, Matsuyama jumped up the leaderboard with eight birdies in his first 16 holes, briefly sharing the lead with Will Zalatoris, before relinquishing the lead on the 17th hole. He grabbed it, made more birdies and never let go. But thanks to close-up video of Matsuyama addressing his third shot in the par-5 rough, it looked like he was in danger of bogey.
A number of fraudulent videos of the alleged incident have already been removed from social media. But like all potential rules disputes, they spread like wildfire. The CBS Sports staff must have known this was the case, because Jim Nantz quickly introduced the rule and reviewing analyst Mark Dasbabek explained that there was no foul from Matsuyama.
Here’s a surprising exchange between Nantz and Dusbabek:
Nantz: They think they’re playing a “gotcha” game. Didn’t Matsuyama say earlier on the bottom of the 17th, “Hey, that ball moved!” That’s wrong! Let me now introduce Doucet (Dusbek) with some speculation.
Dusbabek: Yes, Jim, the ball didn’t move. The ball moved a little, but stayed in the same position. The ball has to move to different positions, up, down, sideways, it doesn’t matter. It just didn’t move in its position.
Nantz: Please find someone else to pick up.
