The European Tour’s 2019 campaign got underway Wednesday at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, which means it was the first opportunity for many in the field to try out the new rules.
Players are now allowed to tap down spike marks on the greens, and Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano felt compelled to weigh in on the rules change on Day 1:
First competitive round of the year on @EuropeanTour with the new rules on effect. Tapping down spikemarks felt so weird, it will take some time to get used to it - Unless you are Simon Dyson and you have been doing it for years.
— Gonzalo Fdez-Castaño (@gfcgolf) January 16, 2019
Boom!
Roasted.
For those who don’t remember, Dyson received a two-month suspension and $49,000 fine for a rules violation in 2013. The European Tour found that he’d committed a “serious breach” of the code of behavior when he tapped down spike marks in his line on a short putt.
Good news! Dyson now can tap down as many as he wants without consequence, but apparently his peers haven’t forgotten the misdeeds of his past.
Can’t be arsed..the incident was 6 years ago..some of us have actually moved on.. https://t.co/znADqqUmi9
— SimonDysonAcademy (@simondyson77) January 16, 2019