Wyndham Clark was cleared of any wrongdoing after discovering himself on the centre of a guidelines controversy throughout the second spherical of the Arnold Palmer Invitational on Saturday.
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Clark, who completed the day in second place two pictures behind Shane Lowry, despatched social media right into a spin when he took free aid on the third gap.
It got here after his tee shot landed within the fairway, took a bounce and returned to his personal pitch mark.
The PGA Tour’s director of TV guidelines and video, Wealthy Pierson, addressed the incident on the printed and stated that if Clark’s ball was within the mark made by one other participant, he wouldn’t be allowed to take aid.
“Wyndham’s ball didn’t embed. His ball bounced and it rolled into any person else’s pitch mark,” Pierson initially stated, to which the printed workforce requested if he was entitled to aid.
“I didn’t see that he took aid from that,” Pierson replied.
“He wouldn’t be allowed aid from another person’s pitch mark.”
The digicam angles obtainable on the printed made it tough to find out whether or not Clark’s ball had landed in his personal pitch mark or a unique one, however ESPN+ cameras finally cleared him as Pierson later returned with an replace.
“Utilizing tv and our ShotLink cameras, we had been in a position to decide that it did find yourself in its unique pitch arm,” Pierson stated.
“Subsequently there could be no penalty.”
Golf Channel’s guidelines official Mark Dusbabek additionally appeared on their broadcast close to the tip of Clark’s spherical, backing up Pierson’s account by reporting that the PGA Tour had been in a position to entry a high-resolution video of the second to clear his title.
Talking after the spherical, Clark stated he wasn’t conscious of “any confusion” surrounding the incident.
“Once we hit it, I used to be asking for it to cease,” Clark stated.
“We by no means noticed it bounce. Then we stand up there and it’s in a plugged lie. It was full of — my ball was coated with mud. So we took aid, didn’t suppose something of it.”
Clark isn’t any stranger to a guidelines controversy. In truth, it isn’t the primary time he was cleared of a guidelines violation on the Arnold Palmer Invitation, having been on the centre of controversy finally 12 months’s occasion.
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On that event, Clark was taking part in the 18th gap of the third spherical when he despatched his tee shot into the appropriate tough earlier than showing to floor his membership, transferring the ball earlier than hitting his second shot.
Clark emphatically denied he was making an attempt to cheat on the finish of the day’s play, as an alternative claiming he “merely put my membership down” and was later cleared of any wrongdoing by the foundations officers.
Clark was additionally on the thick of a dishonest scandal on the 2023 US Open, which he gained by one stroke over Rory McIlroy.