Nick Faldo changes his stance on 2-shot penalty for Tiger Woods at Masters

The immediate reaction from the golf press to Augusta National's decision to issue Tiger Woods a 2-shot penalty, rather than disqualify him, was horror. Golf Channel was live on the air with their pregame show when the decision came down, and Brandel Chamblee and Nick Faldo were on the spot to excoriate the ruling. Chamblee immediately shifted to Woods not accepting the ruling and disqualifying himself, as nothing less would leave a cloud over the game and the rest of Tiger's career.

Faldo was in lockstep with Chamblee, and called the decision dreadful. Here's a snippet from his comments earlier today:

"Me, personally, this is dreadful," Golf Channel's Nick Faldo said about the ruling from tournament officials. The ruling assessed Woods a two-stroke penalty for his improper drop, but did not boot him from the proceedings.

"He really should sit down and think about this and the mark this will leave on his career, his legacy, everything. He should really sit quietly with whoever he trusts -- [agent] Mark Steinberg, a few others, maybe Lindsey [Vonn, Tiger's girlfriend] as well -- and sit and just go, ‘Well, I would be doing the real manly thing to [say he has] broken the rules of golf.'"

It was a pretty solid stance, with not much room for waffling or equivocation. Welp, here's Sir Nick a few hours later, no longer on Golf Channel but at the top of the CBS broadcast changing his tune, citing a better understanding of the timeline:

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