CARNOUSTIE, Scotland -- The temperature was below 50 degrees, the skies looked like gray laundry lint and the annoyingly steady drizzle forced players to don head-to-toe body condoms.
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| Even Tiger is perplexed by the free drop ruling, but he takes it nonetheless. (AP) |
To stave off the clammy chill at Carnoustie Golf Links, Woods whipped out a pair of huge, black nylon mittens that looked like kitchen oven mitts. Given the hot potato he was forced to handle afterward, the gloves had dual purpose, since the world's No. 1 player had to do more than fend off the cold.
After opening with a 2-under 69 to begin his bid to become the first player in a half-century to win three consecutive British Open belts, Woods had to explain his role in a curious ruling that some claimed was caused by preferential treatment by a rules official.
Woods was 3 under when he hit a drive dead left on the 10th hole, which is when everything else started moving sideways as well. Given the sketchy explanation that officials with the Royal & Ancient Golf Club offered with regard to the ensuing free drop he received, the saucy British tabs fast made a federal case out of the questionable ruling.
Actually, since we're overseas, it was more of an international incident. Apparently, the belief abroad is that Woods not only rules the game, he rules the rulemakers.
After Woods yanked his drive into what might be the only stand of trees for miles, his ball came to rest on a line of television cables resting in the thick grass. Ninety-nine times out of 100, rules protocol calls for a player to mark the ball, move the cables, then drop the ball in the same spot with no penalty.
However, Woods said the R&A rules official on the scene, Alan Holmes, instead offered a free drop several feet away in an area that had been trampled by fans, claiming the cables were an immovable obstruction. Mark Roe, a BBC radio reporter and former European Tour player, was shadowing Woods' group and said he moved the cables with relative ease afterward. He more than insinuated that Holmes was intimidated.
"I think the R&A official became a jellyfish the moment Tiger Woods asked for a drop," Roe said on the air.
Roe added later: "I am absolutely disgusted. In 21 years, I've never seen a drop like it. The rules official has made a big mistake."
Woods shrugged and tried to explain what happened.
"It was a weird drop," he said. "I was as surprised as anybody. I've never seen that ruling before."
Woods denied using his sway to coerce Holmes into the decision.
"He tried to move them before I got there to keep the pace of play going," Woods said. "Then when I got there he says the cables are immovable. As I said, I've never seen a ruling like that before. Every time I have played around the world, they have picked those (cables) up, no problem."
Woods said the drop didn't help improve his line to the green, and made it "a little bit worse, actually." However, without the drop, he might have been forced to lay up well short of the creek fronting the green.
When Holmes was told the cables were supposed to be moved, tersely replied, "They're fixed." Roe said he personally moved them three feet.
A veteran referee, Holmes is the next in the line of ascension for the top position on the R&A rules and equipment committee. His current superior, committee director David Rickman, blanched when it was suggested that Holmes kowtowed to Woods' will.
"I've never met any R&A official who is scared of the players," Rickman said
It isn't as though the judgment of the R&A hasn't otherwise been open to question lately. The organization botched the set-up of a British Open qualifier so badly on July 2 that play had to be suspended and a controversial flagstick location moved because balls kept rolling off the green. Eight players had to replay the hole after one qualifying hopeful four-putted from just over two feet.
Tuesday night, a member of the R&A rules committee told a series of racially and sexually charged jokes at a journalists' banquet at Carnoustie, prompting another mini-scandal among the R&A bluebloods, who govern the sport outside North America. A day later, R&A brass compounded the issue by declining to ask for the man's resignation and making mealy mouthed excuses for his retention.
Woods saved par on the 10th hole and played the brutal four-hole closing stretch in 1 under to finish the day in positive fashion. The highlight was the slap-shot putt he holed on the difficult 16th, a 248-yard par-3 hole played into swirling winds. Woods smoked a 2-iron onto the front of the green, then slammed home a putt he estimated at around 35 yards.
"Tap-in 100-footer," he cracked.
If only the free drop had proved so easy, huh?