PGA Tour: Explanation of the ruling on Hideki Matsuyama and FedEx St. Jude

Hideki Matsuyama’s victory by two strokes in Memphis was anything but disappointing, a stark departure from what many had imagined the FedEx St. Jude Championship would expire.

After making his second birdie of the day on the par-3 11th, Matsuyama entered the 12th hole in full control of the tournament, five points ahead at 19 under par. He then missed the left fairway on this dogleg par-4, the right side of which is completely filled with water. But before he reached the pond that comes into play, PGA Tour Chief Umpire Gary Young followed Matsuyama to discuss an incident on the 7th hole.

On this 435-yard par 4, Matsuyama missed the green on the right and his ball landed in a catch area below the surface. However, his approach shot landed just wide of the green, leaving a large pitch mark that needed to be repaired. So before playing his third shot, Matsuyama walked to the green and, after repairing it, stomped the mark with his foot.

Nevertheless, Matsuyama seemed to be on the verge of Rule 8.1 of the Rules of Golfwhich deals with “player actions to improve the conditions affecting the shot.”

In this case, Matsuyama appeared to have improved the condition of the course within his line of play, which is a violation of this rule. Essentially, a player must play the course as he finds it and may not improve its condition for his own competitive advantage. Should a player do so, a two-stroke penalty will be assessed.

“At that point, the question was whether it was on Matsuyama’s line of play or not,” Young told the Todd Lewis from Golf Channel after.

Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images

“Some of the video footage showed it was close. Close enough to have to have that conversation with him, and unfortunately we had to do it with him in the middle of the round, which is never reassuring to go out and talk to a player. But it could affect his strategy for the rest of the round if he got a two-stroke penalty.”

Matsuyama’s pitch mark was about three feet to the right of his intended line toward the hole—quite close for an amateur player, but not for a PGA Tour professional, let alone a Masters champion.

“I just had to ask him the question and he remembered the situation. I asked him, ‘What exactly did you do and why did you do it?’ And he just said that’s what he usually does when he has a pitch mark and he feels like it’s not anywhere close to his style of play,” Young added.

“And that’s why he resigned.”

The Rules Committee decided not to impose a penalty on Matsuyama because he had properly marked his ball on the putting green, which is fully justified under Rule 8.1b.

Young also confidently agreed with the decision. He felt that Matsuyama had no intention of improving his game. He added that everyone, from the committee to the United States Golf Association (USGA)– whom he consulted in this decision – was confident about the outcome.

“It really wasn’t an issue,” Matsuyama later told the Golf Channel through an interpreter.

“They just wanted to check and make sure the rules were being followed, and they did. And for the rest of the day, it really didn’t affect me. If I was worried I’d done something wrong, it would have made me self-conscious. But it really wasn’t a problem, so it was fine.”

Regardless, this situation must have influenced Matsuyama’s game somewhat.

When Young approached him, Matsuyama was five strokes ahead. But when Matsuyama teed off the par-5 16th four holes later, he was one stroke behind. Viktor Hovland. Matsuyama three-putted for a bogey on hole 12, hit a water hole on hole 14 and made a sloppy double bogey on hole 15, adding to the drama in Memphis.

“Unfortunately, we watched the rest of his lap and saw what happened and I felt really bad about possibly influencing him, but that’s the difficult part of our job,” Young added.

“We need to make the player aware of this for the rest of the round.”

The PGA Tour’s decision certainly caught the attention of the golf world as it became a fascinating story as the round progressed. But it also served as a crucial turning point as Matsuyama completely collapsed on the next four holes. And yet, like the true champion he is, Matsuyama got things back on track at the right time, birdied the challenging 17th and 18th holes and won by two shots.

Jack Milko is the golf editor at SB Nations Playing Through. Be sure to check out: @_Playthrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well as.