Golf World Daily - April 6, 2012

an “administrative error” regarding luke donald’s score had augusta national’s media center and the twitter world, well, all atwitter thursday afternoon. for more than an hour rumor overshadowed play on the course as word spread that a scorecard situation involving the world’s no. 1 player might be the basis for a dq. the cause of the commotion: the main scoreboard had donald making birdie on the par- 4 fifth hole although several media members saw him make 5. his 18-hole total of 73 also appeared to be two shots off. donald himself even started his post-round comments to the press by referencing a three-putt on no. 5. yet on the same transcript, there was a circle around the par on the fifth hole indicating birdie. soon, speculation was running rampant. at 6:05 p.m. augusta national finally made an announcement that put the matter to rest: “for verification, mr. donald signed for a correct score of three-over-par 75, including a bogey- 5 on the fifth hole. due to an administrative error, an incorrect score was entered into our scoring system for the fifth hole. that error has been corrected.” what was the administrative error? apparently nothing more than the score being read incorrectly from a fuzzy fax. —E. Michael Johnson (@EMichaelGW)