WATCH: Abraham Ancer hit with two-stroke penalty

Abraham Ancer has been retrospectively handed a two-stroke penalty for allowing his club to touch the sand before hitting a shot from a greenside bunker.

The rules violation, which sees the Mexican’s score adjusted from a 73 to a three-over-par 75, came at the par-five 15th and leaves him in a tie for 52nd place, 10 strokes behind leader Justin Rose.

“After Mr. Ancer had signed his scorecard and exited the scoring area, video evidence was reviewed by the Committee regarding a potential breach of Rule 12.2b(1), which states that touching sand in a bunker right behind the ball results in a penalty,” Augusta National said.

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“The touching of the sand was deemed visible to the naked eye. Had this not been the case, the video evidence would have been disregarded and a penalty would not have been applied.”

Ancer, playing in his second Masters, said he had been informed the penalty was for “unintentionally grazing the sand” with his backswing. 

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