Tiger Woods has joined a chorus of criticism after a female player was denied a chance of winning a major title by an eagle-eyed TV viewer.

Someone watching the ANA Inspiration Championship in Palm Springs, California, noticed Lexi Thompson had slightly misplaced her ball on the 17th green during her third round on Saturday.

The anonymous viewer emailed officials the following day and, after reviewing the video, they imposed a four-stroke penalty - for misplacing the ball and handing in an incorrect scorecard.

Image: Lexi Thompson cried as she approached the 18th green

Thompson had led the tournament by two shots with six holes to go during Sunday's final round.

After the penalty, the world number four recovered to force a play-off against South Korea's So Yeon Ryu.


However, the American player lost the decider - and along with it, the first women's major of the year.

Viewers at home should not be officials wearing stripes. Let's go @Lexi, win this thing anyway. — Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) April 3, 2017

Thompson was incredulous when told of the penalty, asking the official: "Is this a joke?"

Realising it was not, she added: "That's just ridiculous," before beginning to cry.

Fellow golfers offered their support, with Tiger Woods tweeting: "Viewers at home should not be officials wearing stripes. Let's go @Lexi, win this thing anyway."

Singer Justin Timberlake tweeted: "@Lexi is SO CLASSY. Handled that with grace and fight. Career defining moment."

👏👏👏@Lexi is SO CLASSY. Handled that with grace and fight. Career defining moment. https://t.co/CEzHlckCpE — Justin Timberlake (@jtimberlake) April 3, 2017

But Britain's Lee Westwood posted: "You know all this rules confusion could have been averted if Lexi just mastered the art of marking and replacing the ball in the same spot."

Golf rules state that, when marking a ball on the green, it must be replaced in exactly the same spot.

TV pictures showed that before Thompson picked it up, her ball completely covered the marker, but when she replaced it, the marker could be seen from the same angle.

Later, Thompson posted on Instagram to make it clear it was an honest mistake: "Well it was an emotional day here for me, first off I do want to say what I had done was 100% not intentional at all I didn't realise I had done that."