[mr3856a]

It's not surprising that some people would dismiss it out of hand ( Absolutely zero evidence in that video that Kenny cheated) and that some would feign insult at the mere accusation. However, nobody seems to be taking in the entirety of the evidence.

The main argument seems to be you either can't tell how far behind the ball he grounded the club (you can) or that it was somehow too far behind the ball to merit concern (it wasn't). What nobody has made mention of are the words of one David Feherty:

Kenny has got a lie – it's a down-grain lie but there is a big clump of down-grain grass behind it.

I'm not sure he can get the sand wedge on the ball here without playing some kind of muffled shot.

Now although you can clearly tell he grounds the club right behind the ball, some people choose not to see that. Now you've heard it as well.

Other comments:

John Paramor, chief referee of the European Tour, has watched the video more than 100 times, often in the company of other professional golfers. "The first thing they say when they see it is: 'The guy has done something bad,'" he says.

Rule 13.2 in the Rules of Golf: "A player must not improve or allow to be improved the position or lie of his ball ... by any of the following actions - pressing a club on the ground, moving, bending or breaking anything growing or fixed."

There is another bit I wish I could find to share but I can't. Several years ago in Golf World they had their annual caddy questionnaire of PGA Tour caddies, and one of the questions they asked was along the lines of "What is the most common rule violation you see?" One very popular answer was exactly what Kenny did: grounding your club behind the ball several times to tamp down the grass behind it.

Originally Posted by GolfSavage

It's not the video, it's claiming the PGA swept something under the rug and asserting that the video shows "he cheated without any question". He's calling Perry a cheater and is accusing the PGA of being an accomplice.

I know, the nerve, right? Here is what John Huggan, former Scottish Amateur Champion, former Senior Editor at Golf Digest, regular contributor to Golf World, and co-author of a multitude of books with David Leadbetter, Hank Haney, Gary McCord, etc. had to say:

Collectively, the PGA Tour brass are past masters at making bad news go away, even when the evidence to the contrary is seemingly incontrovertible. Take last week, when videotape came to light of just what Kenny Perry got up to on the first hole of a sudden death play-off for this year's FBR Open.

As soon as they had seen America's Ryder Cup hero and recent Masters choker in action, tour officials went into "damage control mode," insisting that Perry's tap-tap-tapping on what CBS commentator David Feherty had just called a "big clump of grass behind his ball" was not a breach of the rules.

Even the man beaten in the play-off, Charley Hoffman, wanted nothing to do with pointing out the obvious. "I have no problem with that," he gasped. "We all do it."

If what Hoffman claims is true, not only does golf at the highest level have a serious problem, but some education in the area of what does and does not constitute "improving one's lie" is badly needed.