Maybe my eyesight but I just don't see a mark. I see her hand coming down in a totally different position placing the ball. I have seen players mark and briefly reset their ball without cleaning or standing upright with it. I personally always stand behind my ball placing the coin toward the pin. My main reason to mark and remove my ball is so it won't be hit or moved.

Some players will mark and replace just to align the brand label with the line of the putt, so let's not assign a motive just because she didn't feel it necessary to clean the ball

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C' mon soon after the tournament was over she and her partner were @30,000 ft in her private jet sipping Dom Perignon ( 1998 )..along with Dean & DeLuca Caviar 8.8 oz. size, Russian of course, planning there " Romantic " get away somewhere in the South Pacific .

So I do appreciate all the Tears and Sympathy...but realistically... Lexi..I'm certain slept pretty good last night.

Dear Devoted fans and Admirers Get over it.

She owned up to it quite nicely. She said that she didn't know she did it. As far as I can see, she handled the whole matter with dignity and class. She never argued with the ruling.

I think that her public showed exactly what they think of her as she approached the 18th green yesterday.

I think that most people believe that it was an unintentional error and are very sympathetic toward her.

Actually, how it was detected does not matter.

Once the officials are made aware of a violation, they have a responsibility to the rest of the field to investigate it and if there is a violation, to correctly apply the rules regardless of the source of the information.

There's a big difference between watching a television program and wire tapping. Golfers playing in a tournament are in the public domain. Reporting their actions is way different than wire tapping a private phone line. If you saw a bank being robbed and reported it to the police, would you be violating the bank robber's rights? Should the police consider that they didn't see the event themselves?

If you know that someone was cheating on their income tax and reported it to the IRS shouldn't the IRS investigate or should they do nothing because of how it was detected.?

In this particular case, under the current rules, the ruling was 100% correct. Once the officials have the information regardless of how it was obtained they must act according to the rules.

I doubt very highly that she slept well. She has enough money to last for generations. Money is not what motivates people like Lexi Thompson, or anyone that play a sport at the highest levels. Lexi wants to become known as the greatest female to ever play the game. She wants to have a major championship record that is unsurpassed.

Regardless of what is going on in her personal life, this was a major blow to her. Some people never get over events like this and spiral into mediocrity.

I hear people all the time with comments about Tiger Woods. "He has so much money, what does he care?"

He does care to a degree that many of us might not understand. It is killing him that his career is turning out this way. He was on track to beat all of Jack Nicklaus' records and that has become extremely doubtful now.

I don't think that a lot of people realize how much these people are driven and how hard they work to get to where they are. It's really not about money at that level. If it was, why would they continue playing? Why does Tom Brady keep going out week after week and taking the hits that he does? Why doesn't he just take it easy and enjoy the money that he has. His net worth together with his wife is almost $600 million dollars. How can anyone think that he is motivated by money.

If golf were more popular, the viewer who notified the officials could become the new Steve Bartman. If the roles had been reversed and Lexi Thompson had won and So Yeon Ryu lost because of the penalties, we wouldn't even be talking about it.

I think how it was detected DOES matter. IMO, a primary function of the ROG is to maintain a level field for all competitors. The intrusion of TV into the competition should be no more than that of a spectator attending the event. The officials running these tournaments should not accept any input from outside the competition committee, walking officials, or competitors.

In this particular case, the incidental/accidental error in replacing the ball wasn't apparent to her fellow competitors, walking scorer, or attending official. It was only apparent with a close-up camera shot, similar to the Furyk penalty a couple of years ago when his ball moved about dimple after replacing it. The additional scrutiny from TV coverage tilts the field to the detriment of those covered by placing every move they make under a microscope. A condition the vast majority of players don't have to experience.

The players in the lead have more TV coverage and scrutiny, but the players who are not in the lead, are more likely to lose their ball because there are no cameras and spectators tracking where it goes on every shot. Also, spectators lining the fairway often get hit by the ball, which causes it to deflect back into the fairway. Years ago, Tiger Woods had a huge rock boulder (loose impediment) moved by several strong spectators so he could make a shot. That would have never happened to a player not in the lead. But, in this particular case, there was a very clear violation of the rules and she should have been penalized. So, justice prevailed. Her playing partners may have seen it, but let it slide, because they didn't want to be criticized.

I agree with much of what you say, but once the officials are made aware that a violation had occurred it's their duty and responsibility to look into the matter and assess appropriate penalties.

For example let's say that a rules official is standing near the gallery of the 18th hole of a tournament and overhears a spectator say, "She should know how this putt breaks. I saw her practicing on this green this morning."

In that case, a competitor violated a rule for which the penalty is disqualification. It would be difficult to convince me that a player on any of the professional tours doesn't know this rule. I would have to assume that it was done intentionally and with the intent of gaining an advantage.

Should the rules official ignore that comment or should she investigate it? Should isn't it the responsibility of the official to ensure that all players play by the rules.

I agree that something has to be done about people calling in while watching on television. I'm not sure what the answer is, but once an official has information that a rule has been violated, it is up to that official to act upon that information regardless of the source.

I don't think that you can simply say that they shouldn't listen to information from any one source. What if it's a flagrant, intentional violation that no one in the players group sees. I'd lean more to giving officials more discretion in deciding if the violation was intentional and affected the player's score.

I'd also like to see them do away with the penalty for signing an incorrect scorecard wen they are not aware that that had broken a rule.

It's a pretty complex problem and IMHO, and hopefully, The USGA will work to find an answer.

Looking at the replay Stevie Wonder could have made that call .

Ok. Ok. I'll admit I wasn't concentrating on her hands.

There seems to be a lot of speculation by some people in this thread.

Why would you say something like that. There is absolutely no evidence that her fellow competitors were aware of the violation.

I respectfully disagree. First of all, golf is very popular. The difference with golf and team sports is that the players don't represent a city or region so most spectators, although they might like a particular player, really don't have a dog in the hunt.

I firmly believe that if So Yeon Ryu had a four stroke lead with a few holes remaining and was assessed a four stroke penalty because of an incident that occurred the day before there would still be plenty of discussion about it.