Here's How Lexi Accidently Mismarked Her Ball (Video & Pics)

After being attentive to Lexi's presser Wednesday -- and recreating the mismarking incident myself -- I suppose I can sooner or later explain how Lexi should mismark her ball so badly by using coincidence. And for the reason that Lexi appeared honestly careworn by the event whilst requested at the presser, perhaps it'll help her as properly.

First, right here's the now-infamous video of the event, presently published on this page at the Golf Channel website. (In the photos below, please forgive the ever-present "arrow" -- it appeared each time I paused the video for a display seize.) The photos I'm the use of is in the first 32 seconds of the video:

There are actually two things you need to know in order to understand this video, and Lexi told us both of them at her presser. You can find the quotes I'm using in this Golfweek post.

The first is her mental recognition on the time. She had just neglected a brief putt at the remaining hollow and, as she walked up to tap this putt in, she said she should listen her dad's voice telling her to sluggish down:

Thompson began by way of explaining how disenchanted she became approximately her birdie attempt from 20 toes inside the third round. Terrible stroke, she stated.

She to begin with notion about tapping it in, but due to the fact her father, Scott, has fussed about the wide variety of brief putts she has overlooked through the years with the aid of shifting too hastily ? ?I?Ve stubbed a few? ? Thompson decided to mark the ball.

She walked along the line of the original putt to tap in the putt, then decided at the last second to mark it. You can see the momentary indecision in the video. That indecision is why she marked it from the side.

The 2d is how she marks her ball:

?The manner I mark my ball, I mark my ball with a dot, and that?S where I focus my eyes on wherein I need to make touch,? She stated. ?So when I went to mark it, I just turned around my ball to line up my dot to wherein my putter would make contact.?

She uses a dot on the back of the ball, not a line on top, so she's looking at a tiny dot when she marks.

Now we're prepared to undergo the incident as it took place inside the video.

Lexi has just made that "terrible stroke" and walks toward the ball, intending to just tap it in. But she thinks better of it -- her father's voice, if you will -- and decides instead to mark it. Perhaps because she's still frustrated by the miss on the previous hole and the bad stroke she just made, perhaps because she just didn't think things through because it's a spur-of-the-moment decision, perhaps because it's such a short putt, she doesn't walk around and mark the ball as she might for a longer putt. Instead, she marks it from the side. This is the mistake that sets the whole debacle in motion.

You see, Lexi may have thought about her dad's words, but she's still "moving too hastily." Her mindset hasn't changed from "this is just a tap-in." She's more concerned about the dot than the putt.

As all of us understand, it's very easy to overlook the plain while your mind is on some thing else. (How regularly have we heard an announcer say, "He fell in love with the road and forgot to hit the ball?" Same element.) But because we do not want to be disturbed while we are trying to putt, we're recommended to select a very small goal -- like a single dimple on the ball, or a dot -- and awareness on that. Lexi's focusing quite difficult on that dot at this factor, and no longer much else.

My first thought changed into that possibly when Lexi attempted to line up that dot, she tilted her head one way or the other and modified the manner she saw the road. But as you could see from this comparison showing simply after she put the coin down to reach for the ball after which simply after she set the ball all the way down to attain for the coin, her head is within the same function:

At this factor I realized that I had to try to recreate what she did. Often we watch matters time and again with out actually seeing what is there, and we do not sincerely "see" till we attempt it ourselves. And that's what came about to me.

Because when I tried to mark the ball just like Lexi did, I suddenly discovered that I COULDN'T SEE THE BALL MARKER AT ALL AFTER I PUT IT DOWN. MY PALM WAS IN THE WAY.

Look, right here are four stills from the near-up within the video. I've introduced a small yellow dot just underneath the location of the marker. The stills display:

1. Lexi just after placing the marker
2. Lexi rotating the ball
3. Lexi placing the ball
4. Lexi reaching to pick up the marker

The ball marker is underneath her palm -- hidden from view -- in all 4 stills. In fact, I found that rotating the ball as Lexi did actually made the marker even harder to see -- my fingers got in the way.

Why didn't Lexi notice this? Because her attention was on the small dot she was trying to line up with the hole. And from her point of view, her hand never moved from its original position, so no alarms went off in her head.

Go again and watch the incident again at complete velocity. It's apparent, once you realize what to look for.

Look, this does not mean that Lexi didn't damage a rule, now not even when you are taking the new "naked-eye" and "reasonable judgment" standards into consideration. The movement is simply seen when viewed at complete speed from the original broadcast pictures. But this should put to rest any rumors that Lexi did it on motive.

However, we ought to word the cause of this entire unhappy collection of activities. Once Lexi determined to mark the ball, if she had been thinking about creating a regular putt in preference to a tap-in, and had lined up the ball as though it had been a longer putt, her hand could have been to the aspect of the marker, no longer overlaying it at the same time as she marked the ball. She could have had a clearer view and would possibly have noticed if she located the ball incorrectly.

As a whole lot as I hate to mention this -- given the contemporary fuss about slow play -- Lexi without a doubt did not take sufficient time to acquire herself. She likely should have put down her coin, picked up her ball and walked away. She should have taken some deep breaths, a few practice strokes, and brought time to clear her thoughts of the terrible putt she had just hit. And then she need to have taken the time to line up her putt like normal.

In short, Lexi didn't treat this like an important putt. But it was.

There's no such thing as a tap-in at a prime. I.K. Kim can tell you that. And now, so can Lexi. Hopefully she'll circulate beyond this faster rather than later.

Of course, we'll get to watch her first tournament back starting today at noon ET when GC broadcasts the Volunteers of America Texas Shootout. You can get a quick overview of the event over at Tony Jesselli's blog.