Paul McGinley believes the rules debacle that broke out between Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and Viktor Hovland has been blown out of proportion.
McIlroy found water twice off the 18th and 7th tees during the opening round of the PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass as he shared the overnight lead after 65.
However, it took the group up to five minutes to determine where McIlroy should take his penalty drop from on 18 and even longer on 7 which brought huge controversy.
McIlroy stuck to his guns and dropped without incurring any further penalties despite lengthy debate between him and his playing partners but McGinley feels the correct decision was reached in both instances.
“It’s just one of those things where you have to trust the three players and say, between them, they’ve got to come to a common ground, and I wouldn’t read too much into it,” McGinley said on Golf Channel.
“I wouldn’t overplay it. I don’t think anybody was wrong. And I think they found what was probably the right decision in the end.
“But what I did like was Viktor and Jordan coming in to have a discussion about it and not taking it for granted. Also, Rory was quite open to what they had to say. I didn’t think he was closed in any way and arguing against them.
“It’s one of these things that happens and one of these things that makes the game so great is that there’s no referee in this instance, and it fell to the three players that get to the right place and make the right decision. It’s part and parcel of professional golf.
“A lot has been made of it on social media, and it has been blown up into a huge big deal, and I don’t see it as that big a deal.”
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