Quote:
Originally Posted by JimSomebody
Tell ya what... if it's ME in that situation, I don't do ANYthing that looks like I might be messing with the lie.
It does look to me is if he tamped down grass behind the ball and his situation was improved as a result. He also seemed to get self-conscious right afterwards, first doing some more messing around, then calling on a rules official to come in and make a ruling on who was away (I saw a longer clip elsewhere on Youtube). Not saying that move was a smoke screen or anything.... 
Seriously, it appears to me that he did improve the lie, but I'm not sure he did it with the intention of cheating. I think he might have had a momentary lapse of carelessness, then realized, "Oh no, that might have been a bad thing!" |
If that is the case, that the realization hit him that he might've done something contrary to the rules yet didn't summons a rule official -- then he did cheat. At that point he has an obligation to call himself out and incur the penalty. Because to not do so is to assume that cheating is okay as long as no one catches it, which we all know isn't the case.
But what we've been presented in this 15 second snipet is much too generic to provide any real incriminating evidence. Had the camera angle been zoomed in to the side of the player, there would be more definitive proof. And if that evidence is available, I would love to see it. But from this angle, it is nothing more than speculation.