The rules say that in his situation, he was supposed to drop “as near as possible” to his original divot. He admitted that the area was too wet and he dropped two yards back. This establishes that he intended to use the drop to gain a better lie.
The drop should have been supervised by an official right then and there on the spot. The rules of golf don’t necessarily enforce themselves. Perhaps officials were derelict in their duty to not be on top of the situation in real time. They had to be alerted by some TV viewer well after the fact so, shame on them!
Calls for Tiger to “fall on his sword” seem to be out of some need to see him hurt himself rather than for him to be honorable, which he is anyway.
None of his professional gains have ever been ill-gotten, so what’s the problem? It’s not like he failed a drug test or something...Or is that only excusable when it’s Rush Limbaugh, hmmmm...and don’t get me wrong, I dig Rush like a miner loves gold.
I believe he referred to the drop area as being too wet.
It appeared to me that with the fairway sloping towards the pond from his original lay, he would be justified in dropping the ball slightlu uphill, so that when the ball stopped rolling from the drop, it would not be any closer to the green than his original lay/lie(?).
It didn’t appear to me to be 2 yards behind his original divot, but about 2-3 feet, .. ie a club length, and on that fairway, I wouldn’t call him for trying to get a better lay than allowed by the rules.
FWIW, by looking at the replay, he was using his club to move dirt and twigs/debris from around his striking area, which is considered grounding his club. Usually, as a matter of habit, that is only done by hand and not using his club as a rake.