Collin Morikawa shot a three-under-par 69 on day one at The Masters but the most memorable moment from his first round was a rules controversy on the 6th green.
The two-time Major champion was seen moving his marker and ball on the putting surface after his ball rolled back when he addressed it with his putter. He was cleared of any wrongdoing and went about it within the rules, but there were some allegations of foul play on social media.
The clip, originally only showing him replacing his ball, gained hundreds of thousands of views across Twitter and Instagram but a later video showing the full incident clearly showed his ball roll first roll back - something not captured in the first video where the allegations were being made.
A much clearer look at what happened on 6 for Morikawa at #themasters pic.twitter.com/ll0rzbB2ZHApril 6, 2023
Morikawa was asked about the incident after his round, where he said "you guys are freaking me out" before joking to "blow it up" in order to gain him a better position in the Player Impact Program, where PGA Tour players earn bonus money for off-course activities and social media hits.
"The ball moved, and then I moved it back. Pretty standard now. Pretty routine in our rules book thankfully," Morikawa said.
"Look, if I showed up to this course and it was firm and fast, I probably would never put my putter down because you never know when that's going to just trickle on. Now it's was on a little mound and moved and nothing wrong with that."
The World No.12 was then further questioned on the incident and asked whether a rules official had been in touch, before being informed that the clip went viral.
"No. Is that a big talk? So they what? Good. Bring that PIP up. Blow me up, guys," he said.
"With the marker like this far behind. Because I threw it down because I was going to throw the marker back. I'm not fine. There's no rules official. You guys are freaking me out here. I'm going to get hunted down."
"You're good," Morikawa was told. "Good. PIP's going up," he replied.
