Rory McIlroy, 18th hole, second round, 2009
Harrington didn’t endure the only rules blunder in 2009’s second round. After leaving a bunker shot in the sand on the par-4 18th hole, McIlroy, depending on your point of view, either smoothed the sand with his foot or kicked it in frustration. The latter would have brought about a disqualification, because McIlroy signed his card shortly thereafter. After being summoned to return to Augusta National later that evening to review the video and provide his side of the story, the club released a statement that said, “Because of 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.”
Jeff Maggert, third hole, final round, 2003

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Maggert started Sunday with a two-shot lead over Mike Weir and still held a one-shot cushion heading to the 350-yard, par-4 third. Playing cautiously, Maggert attempted to lay up with a 2-iron off the tee, but found one of the four bunkers guarding the left side of the fairway. With his second shot, he attempted to pick a 52-degree gap wedge, but the ball ricocheted off the lip of the bunker and struck him in the chest. It resulted in a two-shot penalty for touching a moving ball, with Maggert eventually making a triple-bogey 7. Although Maggert recovered to play the next eight holes in two under par, a quintuple-bogey 8 on the par-3 12th doused any remaining hope and he finished T-5, five shots back of Weir. “I guess my reflexes aren’t what they used to be,” Maggert said of his inability to avoid the rebound, which interestingly is no longer a penalty under the new Rules of Golf.
