McGinley 'staggered' as LIV Golf's Brooks Koepka is CLEARED of rules violation!

Paul McGinley says he was "staggered" that LIV Golf's Brooks Koepka did not a receive a two-shot penalty after TV footage appeared to show his caddie Ricky Elliott telling Gary Woodland's caddie Brennan Little which club he was hitting into the par-5 15th. 

On replay of the TV footage during round one of The Masters, it appeared as though Elliott said 'five' two times to Brennan Little. 

This would appear to mean 5-iron, which was indeed the club of choice for Koepka. 

As Koepka takes off his glove, he also appears to signal 'five' with his fingers. 

It is against the rules of golf for a player or caddie to disclose any information such as which club was used to hit a shot on the course. 

According to Rule 10-2a, during a round a player must not:

• Give advice to anyone in the competition who is playing on the course
• Ask anyone for advice, other than the player’s caddie, or
• Touch another player’s equipment to learn information that would be advice if given by or asked of the other player
• Penalty for breach of rule: two strokes

Augusta National reviewed the footage and cleared Koepka and his caddie of any wrongdoing. 

"Following the completion of Brooks Koepka’s round, the Committee questioned his caddie and others in the group about a possible incident on No. 15," James B. Hyler, Jr, Chairman of Competition Committees, said in a statement.

"All involved were adamant that no advice was given or requested. Consequently, the Committee determined that there was no breach of the Rules."

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Had they deemed Koepka's caddie had violated Rule 10.2a, then Koepka would have incurred a two-stroke penalty on the hole.

It would have turned his birdie-four on the 15th into a bogey-six, but Koepka was let off the hook.

WATCH WHAT HAPPENED HERE: 

So much of the LIV players being treated poorly by #TheMasters

First round leader Brooks Koepka should have been penalized 2 shots for his caddie giving advice to a competitor. The video evidence couldn’t be more clear, but the players lied, so @TheMasters decided no penalty. pic.twitter.com/y8UPG2gDs2

— John Ziegler (@Zigmanfreud) April 6, 2023

McGinley, who is working for both Sky Sports Golf and Golf Channel, said: "It’s very obvious… it’s staggering that they’ve denied it because the evidence is there.

"This is common practice on tour. Whether you like it or not, it happens in every professional tournament around the world.

"If the authorities want to stamp this out and really come down on this and make an example of it and obviously they haven’t. They’ve chosen not to do that and it looked very clearly the evidence was against them."

Koepka carded a brilliant 7-under 65 to move into a share of the first-round lead with Jon Rahm and Viktor Hovland. 

The four-time major champion was asked about the incident following his first round, and he said: 

"Yeah, we looked at it when we got back in,” he said. “(Gary Woodland and his caddie) had no idea what we were hitting.

"They didn’t even know because – I know that fact because GW asked me what we hit walking off (the 15th), when we were walking down. So that’s all I can give you."

Martin Kaymer's caddie Craig Connelly took to Twitter to reveal this sort of thing happens "multiple times a round" on Tour. 

Connelly tweeted: "Happens every single day, multiple times a round,” Connelly wrote. “And, if there’s a caddie on here who says they’ve never done it, then they’re talking s****!"

Just watched the Brooks 'incident'. Absolute NON STARTER! Happens every single day, multiple times a round and if there's a caddy on here who says they've never done it, then they're talking shite! Also, at Augusta there's spotters at the side of the fairway and on par 3 tees.

— Craig Connelly (@theweeman77) April 7, 2023

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