Three years later, Tiger Woods and Charlie Woods were so close to grabbing the trophy at the 2024 PNC Championship.

This defeat was worse than any other one. In the 36-hole scramble tournament finale, Bernhard Langer and his son Jason Langer scored a 15-under 57. Now this tied them with Team Woods, who were already in the lead. This forced them to take a playoff on Sunday.

And well, as they approached the final hole, Bernhard Langer played from a forward tee. The Langers and the Woods team both reached the green, leaving themselves with similar-length eagle putts. However, it was the Langers who capitalized, sinking their putt for the winning eagle. But was their win justified? As it turns out, the golf enthusiasts do not take it to be so.

When the winning video of the Team Langer went viral on the Internet, he was allegedly accused of cheating at the Ritz Carlton on Sunday. Even Paolo Uggetti took to his official X account to address the issue. He shared a picture of the zoomed-in ball from the course and wrote, “I know it’s scramble rules, but we need to have a conversation about Langer literally teeing up his ball in the bunker so he could hit driver! The zoom-in camera did him no favors”.

The golf community seems to be agreeing with Paolo Uggetti and put on all the blames on Langer.

Bernhard Langer called a cheater by the golf world

During the final singles match against the U.S. team’s Craig Stadler, Bernhard Langer’s ball was near a water hazard, and a dispute arose over whether his ball had been in the hazard or not. The controversy stemmed from whether he had improperly grounded his club in the hazard, a violation of the rules. The situation became tense, and although some spectators speculated Langer had violated the rules, the organizers didn’t give him a penalty and they resolved the issue without any sanctions.

While this was a controversial moment in Ryder Cup history, it was not a cheating case, and no formal accusation was made. The matter was more about a disagreement over the application of the rules, and Langer’s actions were within the guidelines of what they allowed at the time. However, the golf world still remembers it. Resonating it with the PNC Championship incident, people left comments like, “He’s basically a cheater…why don’t people already know this? As soon as I saw them paired with Tiger I knew it was over. Plus, he plays from the Jr girls tees” and “He’s always been on the edge kinda guy. I still don’t like how close he “doesn’t” anchor his putter.”

Another agreeing to the same wrote, “I thought the same thing. Did he build a tee out of rock sand?”. And one of them simply wrote, “Langer is a cheater. Cheats with his putter, cheats in scrambles. Surprised he didn’t try to sign for a 42.”

In the final round of the 2004 Verizon Heritage (now the RBC Heritage), Stewart Cink was leading the tournament when he made a controversial decision. During his round, Cink’s ball came to rest in a sandy area near a cart path. Cink requested a ruling from the officials about whether he was entitled to a free drop due to the lie in a “through the green” area (not in a hazard). The issue was whether the area where the ball lay was considered a “buried lie” or whether it was a “hard pan”, and whether a drop was necessary.

After a brief discussion with the rules official, Cink received a free drop and continued his round. Some fans criticized the decision and pundits questioned whether the drop was warranted and whether Cink had received preferential treatment. Taking to this incident, one of them even defended Bernhard Langer and wrote, “Stewart Cink, circa 2004 Harbour Town, didn’t see a problem…”

What are your thoughts on Bernhard Langer’s shot at the Ritz Carlton? Let us know in the comments section below!