Masters Committee Revisits Rules Situation With Brooks Koepka

A possible information exchange between the tournament leader, Gary Woodland and their caddies sparked controversy.

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Masters rules officials on Friday revisited a potential issue from the first round involving tournament leader Brooks Koepka, Gary Woodland and their caddies after they finished the second round at Augusta National.

The issue seemed to be resolved after Thursday’s opening round, when Masters officials deemed that Koepka’s caddie, Ricky Elliott, had not breached the rules against giving advice when he appeared to say aloud what club Koepka had used from the fairway.

On Friday, Masters Tournament Committee members questioned Koepka, showing him and Woodland video from the 15th hole.

“Today was just about my, I guess, my hand and my glove," said Koepka, who has the 36-hole lead after a 67. “I don’t know if you’re supposed to take your glove off with your fist closed or what now."

Video and photos showed Elliott verbally saying that Koepka had hit a 5-iron at the hole. It also showed Koepka possibly flashing five fingers, another signal. The question is whether they were giving that information to Brendan “Butchy" Little, Woodland’s caddie.

If you go back and watch on the "Holes 15 and 16" feed, it looks like Koepka's caddie says "5" to Woodland's caddie after Brooks' 2nd shot.

Which, at first glance, looked like he was saying that Brooks hit 5-iron (Woodland had not hit yet). https://t.co/hd2yctOqDC

— No Laying Up (@NoLayingUp) April 6, 2023

Caddies often give or flash such information to television personnel so that it can be relayed to the broadcast team for their use.

But if it was given to another player, that is a violation of Rule 10-2s, meaning a two-stroke penalty. A player can only accept advice from his caddie; neither a player nor a caddie can give advice to another player or caddie, nor ask for it.

The incident caused enough chatter for Masters officials to want another discussion.

“At the end of the day, Brooks hit his shot on 15," Woodland said Friday. “I asked Butchy if he saw what he hit. He said no. Luckily for us because Brooks ended up hitting 5-iron. I hit 5-iron. I asked Butchy what the club was, and he said it’s a choked-up perfect 5,” Woodland said. “I hit my shot. When we were walking down, I asked Brooks what he hit, and he said 5. If I would have known that, I probably would have hit 6-iron, and I would have hit 6-iron in the middle of the water. Luckily for me, I didn’t know what he hit. That’s the end of it.”

Koepka said Elliott told the committee that “he was signaling to somebody what it was. It wasn’t Butchy. Because they asked us what we hit walking down the fairway, so they had no idea."

“I’m taking my glove off," Koepka added. “The last thing I’m going to do is give it to Gary Woodland, the U.S. Open champ. And the funny part about it is I think if he would have known we were hitting 5, he would have hit 6 because I don’t think Gary is that short and he’s 10 in front of me, 12 in front of me.”

Koepka and Woodland hit their tee shots in the same area, with Woodland 10 yards closer to the green. Video showed Koepka hit his second and hand his club back to Elliott. As he stuck the club back in the bag and grabbed Koepka’s putter, Elliott appeared to mouth “five” in the direction of Woodland’s caddie, Little, twice before Woodland hit his second shot.

Elliott was not made available by Augusta National officials.

Passing such information on is common, typically so TV or media officials can see it. And caddies will typically do it more subtly, by allowing the other caddies to look in the bag to see what club is missing or by holding the club in a certain way while cleaning it so it can be seen. Verbally giving the information is considered a no-no and it’s possible that both players could have been penalized if the rules committee deemed it a violation.

The Masters committee released a statement Thursday: “Following the completion of Brooks Koepka’s round, the committee questioned his caddie and others in the group about a possible incident on No. 15. All involved were adamant that no advice was given or requested. Consequently, the committee determined that there was no breach of the rules.”