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Controversy surrounded Collin Morikawa during his first round at The Masters. Video of Morikawa on the green of the sixth hole shows him marking and replacing his ball. Morikawa moved his ball ever so slightly for a moment, then picked it up before moving his marker a couple of inches forward, placing the ball down for good in the new spot.
No a good look for Morikawa 👀 pretty sure that’s cheating.#themasters pic.twitter.com/U5psA9I9as
— Ryley E Fitzsimmons (@ryleyfitz) April 6, 2023
As the video went viral, golf fans quickly voiced their displeasure with Morikawa's actions.
https://twitter.com/TonyDePelt/status/1644051436576317441
Morikawa must be DQ'd for that.
— Spieth Legion (@SpiethLegion) April 6, 2023
That is really poor Morikawa why does a player as a good as that feel the need to bend the rules?
— Craig Thomson (@ThomsonGolf94) April 6, 2023
Andddd the video of the incident is currently going viral 💀
Either way, we should have more clarification soon. Weird that people are turning on Collin when he's got zero history of any behavior like this though.
— Collin Morikawa Tracker (@MorikawaTracker) April 6, 2023
Cheating allegations flew off the Twitter timeline, but Morikawa continued to play his round and no clarification has been given yet on whether he will be penalized for the move.
On the flip side, there were some who immediately defended Morikawa, even drawing an explanation as to what possibly happened.
I feel like this adds some context to that viral Morikawa video — he never actually moved the ball's position, just where the mark was relative to the ball. Once he got the ball to stop, he put the mark closer.
Exonerated! (I think.)
🎥 @yamesyim pic.twitter.com/5UzHW5kwYH— Dylan Dethier (@dylan_dethier) April 6, 2023
No. He marked and when he replaced the ball it rolled to a new spot. Once you mark, you own that spot, so he was simply replacing his ball to where he originally marked it.
— John Wood (@Johnwould) April 6, 2023
While a penalty may be assessed to Morikawa, it seems that a possible disqualification will not be handed down. The two-time major champion finished with a par on the sixth, his fourth straight after a birdie on two. Morikawa finished the front nine two under par.
Morikawa's best finish at The Masters came last April when he finished fifth, six strokes back of champion Scottie Scheffler. Currently ranked 12th in the world, Morikawa had a blistering start to the year. He finished second and third in back-to-back appearances in January but missed the cut in two of his next three tournaments.
Collin Morikawa is currently sitting at one under for his opening round at The Masters with a couple of holes left to go. Three are tied for the lead at seven under.
