Paramor Coming After Media For Sergio Cheating Claim!?

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Bernie McGuire, who freelances for the Associated Press in Europe and is also an R&A media liason officer at The Open Championship, took to his girlfriend's blog to attack GolfDigest.com and yours truly for suggesting Sergio Garcia cheated during round one in Abu Dhabi.

Ignoring that I certainly never used the "C" word and GolfDigest.com merely asked the question of whether Sergio did so, the controversy started when a YouTube video was posted by GolfCentralDaily using the C word.

McGuire writes:

The very selective 11 second video clip appearing on www.golfdigest.com and reported by golf writing pretender Geoff Shakleford shows Garcia reaching forward to tap the green ahead of putting out on the 18th green or the ninth hole of his first round.

Paramor accompanied Garcia to the spot on the green where the victorious Ryder Cup star confidently pointed to the pitch mark he had tapped down, and as allowed under the Rules of Golf.

The European Tour Chief Referee immediately cleared Garcia of any wrong-doing.

Paramor remarked:  “Players do that all the time, tap down pitch marks and there is nothing wrong with that.

“What I am more concerned about is there are those ready to use the ‘C’ word when the very short video clip does not show what went on prior to Sergio tapping down what was clearly a pitch mark.”

I do enjoy the irony of Bernie McGuire calling me a "golf writing pretender" as he misspells my name!

My original tweet noting a possible controversy:

 

A blog post followed questioning whether a violation occurred. And in my post, I suggested Sergio might have committed a violation, which is a long way from calling the man a cheater as McGuire and his colleague in Europe, John Huggan, took exception too.

The word "cheating" was in the YouTube video posted by another website, which oddly goes unmentioned by the AP's man on the scene. GolfDigest.com merely questioned whether Garcia might have cheated.

In McGuire's item, it is suggested the video was taken out of context and that Mr. Paramor would be contacting GolfDigest.com about their item (poor GolfCentralDaily!).

But the item does not say if Paramor reviewed other video evidence which did not appear during the telecast and which would back up Garcia's assertion.

Paramor is best known for handing a slow play penalty to 14-year-old Tianlang Guan at the 2013 Masters.