Rory McIlroy a very lucky young man to

escape disqualification for bunker kick

From Times Online
By John Hopkins, Golf Correspondent
Rory McIlroy is gifted, charming, engaging, precocious and a good many other things and he will surely go on to become one of the world's major golfers in the coming years.
But the Northern Irishman is fortunate that what appeared to be an elementary golfing mistake that he appeared to make at the end of his second round at this year's Masters did not cost him his place in the field for the year's first major championship.
McIlroy had had a rollercoaster of a second round, at one point getting to four under par and close to the lead before falling back when he took four putts on the 16th. But it was what he did when in a bunker on the side of the 18th green that prompted officials to investigate.
McIlroy, having failed to hit his third shot out of the bunker, kicked at the sand before successfully hitting his ball on to the green where he three-putted.
Kicking the sand when your ball remains in a bunker constitutes a rule infringement because it is interpreted as testing the sand. This is forbidden under rule 13-4 a, which states that ".....the player must not test the condition of the hazard or any similar hazard."
The consequences are clear. If a player admits his mistake immediately he would incur a two-stroke penalty to be added to his score at the end of the round. If the alleged infraction is only discovered after he has signed his card then he has signed for a wrong score, one two strokes fewer than he had actually taken, and would be disqualified.
So it all came down to whether or not McIlroy kicked the sand.
It is believed he said he did not remember doing so (Editor's comment: Well, he would, wouldn't he?) and as club officials did not find the television evidence to be conclusive in any way they believed McIlroy.
After an investigation that ended nearly four hours after he had concluded his round, a statement issued by club officials said:
"Based on the tape and Mr McIlroy's statement of what had taken place after he played the shot, it was determined that no violation of the rules had occurred."
As a result McIlroy was included in the draw for the third round. He and Trevor Immelman, the defending champion, will play together and both men will be pursuing Chad Campbell and Kenny Perry, the overnight leaders, who are 10 shots ahead.
McIlroy is a lucky young man.