My first thought was about the person in the "golf industry" who saw and photographed the club several days ago but didn't let Matsuyama know about it??? "Rintoul said someone in the golf industry whom he declined to identify pointed out pictures of Matsuyama's club that had been taken a few days ago. They reached Matsuyama too late to keep him from using the club in competition." Who wanted Matsuyama out of the Tournament??? What does it mean they reached him too late - a few days wasn't enough time to let him know there might be a problem with the club???

    Someone “in the industry” was close enough to take pictures a few days ago but not close enough to say anything to him or his caddie at the time or since Monday or Tuesday???

      raggmann54 I hear you, but this is on the player, just like when Dustin Johnson lost the PGA because he didn't bother to read the local rules.
      If you are a tour player, you should know that there are equipment rules you have to follow. If you don't want to keep up, you hire somebody to do it for you. But it is still ultimately your responsibility, imo.

        You may apply paint or other markings for allignment purposes but not in such amounts it changes the roughness of the hitting area (*). I guess with that amount of whiteout used, the club exceeded the maximum MOI rule as well 😉

        The tour director explaines an infrigment on rule 4.a(3) of the equipment rules.

        However this rule does not exist in the equipment rules :

        Permanent attachments or coatings such as plasma spray, “balata”-type rubber or paint are covered under Part 2, Section 5 of the Equipment Rules”.

        What is more disturbing : a club maker on the pro tour who does such a rush paint job or a tour director who refers to non-existing rules in the rulebook.

        I’m pretty sure it wa GolfWRX, as shown above.

        Here's another tought. Looking at the groove patterns on drivers, most of them do not have grooves in the centre but have them on the sides. Untill now I never asked myself why this is. Grooves increase spin and on a driver this means loss of distance. So this makes sence to have no grooves on centre hits, but have them on off center hits that will go to the left or right. Add some extra spin and loose distance on purpose on errant shots to limit the damage hitting the ball into the woods or deep rough.

        3 woods especially hitting them from the deck require grooves and spin to get the ball airborne, so grooves on 3 woods in general cover the whole clubface. What if Matsuyama wanted added spin for his off-centre hits to have the same damage control as on a driver and added roughness to the face for that purpose? No harm in doing so as long as one does not exceed the limits set in the rulebook on the roughness of the hitting face.

        If the markings were purely an alligment aid, IMO they would have been done with more care and precision.

        Lol it would have been easy to use paint fill in the grooves vs. the whiteout. And it looks horrendous, he should have been dq'd based on the looks alone🤮. What a dumbass!

        Apparently he did this with his driver too and was told that it would be a violation...yet he did it anyway with his 3 wood.

          ode Apparently he did this with his driver too and was told that it would be a violation...yet he did it anyway with his 3 wood.

          Now that's just dumb, if true.