Collin Morikawa explains alleged cheating incident at The Masters

Collin Morikawa cleared the air about allegations that he cheated at The Masters after a video of him moving his ball went viral.

One of the biggest stories from Thursday at The Masters was a viral video involving Collin Morikawa.

The 26-year-old who is looking for his first victory at The Masters appeared to move his ball forward, some said illegally, on the sixth green.

While fans on Twitter had back and forths over innocent and insidious explanations for his actions, the golfer got a chance to explain himself on Thursday night. He did so by posting the video of the incident and providing some commentary.

Collin Morikawa’s explanation of “cheating” incident at The Masters

“Here’s the full video…Ball moved as I addressed it, so I threw the coin down in no specific place, replaced the ball to the original spot and then moved my marker to the original spot (from where I threw it). I play by the rules, I promise.”

Morikawa told reporters that “the ball moved and then I moved it back.” It looked suspicious because of the cut of the video.

Basically, it was a big misunderstanding. Morikawa didn’t break the rules. The original video just didn’t tell the whole story. The ball had moved back on its own, the placement of his mark at the start of the video was random, not an indicator of where the ball was supposed to be.

If there was any evidence that Morikawa had indeed cheated, you can bet officials at The Masters would be on top of it. Instead, everyone on hand seems to agree with Morikawa’s telling of the situation. Case closed.

With that seemingly settled, Morikawa can focus on the task at hand. He finished tied for 13th at minus three while Viktor Hovland, Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka sat atop the leaderboard.