icheon, South Korea: South African golfer Louis Oosthuizen (pictured) said yesterday he felt Tiger Woods should have been disqualified from the US Masters for signing a wrong scorecard following an incorrect drop.
The world number seven will be the highest-ranked player teeing off Thursday in the $2.8m Ballantine’s Championship in South Korea, the golf-crazy country’s only European Tour tournament.
Asked about the Woods incident at a pre-tournament press conference, Oosthuizen said he was with those who felt the 14-time major champion should not have been allowed to finish the tournament in Augusta.
After hitting the flagstick and seeing his ball roll into a water hazard at the 15th hole at Augusta, Woods dropped the ball two yards back from the original shot to avoid a similar risk on the next shot.
He was given a two-stroke penalty for an improper drop, but escaped disqualification for signing an incorrect scorecard after the competition committee invoked a rule for a player who “unknowingly” makes a penalty.
“He got the rule wrong in the way he dropped,” Oosthuizen said. “I don’t think he did it intentionally. But after signing the scorecard, it was definitely a DQ.”
Some former and current players had suggested Woods withdraw from the Masters, but he went on to complete the tournament.
Meanwhile, Oosthuizen respects the decision by American Ryder Cup golfers Dustin Johnson and Zach Johnson to pull out of the Ballantine’s Championship in South Korea this week amid security concerns, but the 2010 Open champion says he is glad he came.
The two Americans pulled out of the event against a backdrop of political tension as North Korea threatened nuclear attacks on the United States, South Korea and Japan after new UN sanctions were imposed in response to its latest nuclear test in February.
Sponsors of the European Tour event said in a statement on Monday: “They have reached this decision following perceived unrest on the Korean peninsula”.
“It was a personal decision the two of them made not coming here and ... you can’t really give them any hard time about it,” Oosthuizen told a news conference, adding “... both of them made the decision with their families not to come.
Oosthuizen, said he had consulted his management before deciding to come.
“I took the word of the guys that, everything is fine over here and ... I was looking forward to the week and I think something drastically needed to go wrong for me, for me not to come, and, yes, I’m glad I came,” he added.
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