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Some PGA Tour players, including former world No.1 Justin Thomas, have rounded on the USGA after the latest in a string of high-profile rules breaches so far in 2019.

American golfer Adam Schenk was retroactively hit with a two-shot penalty after the second round of this week’s Honda Classic after it was determined that he and his caddie had broken rule 10.2b(4), which forbids caddie alignment.

The contentious ruling was one of a number of changes to game’s laws that came into effect on January 1.

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In a statement, the PGA Tour said: “The penalty occurred as a result of Adam’s caddie standing behind him once he took his stance, but not taking any action subsequently that would absolve him of penalty, for example backing out of his stance.”

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Schenk later said that his “intention was never to cheat” and “what’s done is done”.

However, some of his fellow players were less diplomatic – Thomas amongst them.

His fellow major champion Keegan Bradley was even more scornful.

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In response to Thomas, the USGA tweeted to say that they had attempted (unsuccessfully) to communicate with him on the matter and that they felt “we need to talk”.

A follow-up tweet seemed to imply that Thomas had responded to their initial message.

Stay tuned, folks. Something tells us this thing is far from over…


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Michael McEwan is the Deputy Editor of bunkered and has been part of the team since 2004. In that time, he has interviewed almost every major figure within the sport, from Jack Nicklaus, to Rory McIlroy, to Donald Trump. The host of the multi award-winning bunkered Podcast and a member of Balfron Golfing Society, Michael is the author of three books and is the 2023 PPA Scotland 'Writer of the Year' and 'Columnist of the Year'. Dislikes white belts, yellow balls and iron headcovers. Likes being drawn out of the media ballot to play Augusta National.

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