Just when you thought golf couldn't get sillier

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Ian Poulter loses the £1m end-of-season Race To Dubai event, in a dramatic playoff ... by accidentally dropping his ball onto the coin he'd used to mark its place on the putting surface, nudging it all of a centimetre closer to the hole.

One-shot penalty, effectively handing victory to opponent Robert Karlsson.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Just when you thought golf couldn't get sillier

Did Poulter call the penalty on himself? Golfers often do, like snooker players.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Just when you thought golf couldn't get sillier

Being Poulter, he went up to the referee and kind of shrugged and asked "do I have to?" but then did, yes.

He's not exactly Bobby Jones.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Just when you thought golf couldn't get sillier

He'd win a lifetime achievement award for sportsmanship at cricket.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Just when you thought golf couldn't get sillier

For casual readers to this thread (and I appreciate there might not be many) Bobby Jones was the world's greatest golfer during the 1920s, who once cost himself a U.S. Open title by inadvertently touching his ball in the rough in a playoff, a penalty that he called upon himself despite many spectators and even officials pleading with him not to (as no-one else had seen it, and the "offence" had made no difference at all to his chances).

Jones at the time said "You may as well praise a man for not robbing a bank."

Jones went on to found the Augusta National Invitational (now known as the Masters) and in his honour there is the Bobby Jones award for sportmanship in golf. Poulter might well win this, this year, I guess.