Jose Maria Olazabal avoided a penalty after becoming embroiled in controversy over a potentially illegal shot at The Masters. He followed Jack Nicklaus in taking the traditional honorary tee shot, as the first major of the year commenced on Thursday.

As the contenders struggled on a testing opening day, Olazabal enjoyed a magnificent start to the Masters. The Spaniard, who secured the Green Jacket in both 1993 and 1999, surged to a surprising early advantage as he recorded a brace of birdies on the second and third holes before a sequence of two bogeys and a double-bogey undermined his challenge.

Yet earlier in his round, Olazabal sidestepped a potential rules breach on the par-five second hole, when the Spaniard’s tee shot settled in the pine straw. During a practice backswing, Olazabal appeared to strike a tree behind him, dislodging a branch and causing leaves to fall from the tree above his head.

When he ultimately struck the ball, Olazabal proceeded to punch out into the fairway and recorded birdie on the hole. Yet questions emerged about whether he ought to be sanctioned for his conduct. According to Rule 8.1a of the official rules of golf, “a player must not take any of these actions if they improve the conditions affecting the stroke.” Olazabal’s swing appeared to clearly breach the first part of that rule concerning “growing or attached natural object(s).”

The sanction for the swing ought to have been a one-stroke penalty added to his score. However, no penalty was issued at the time, either by Olazabal, his playing partners, or the on-course rules official. Fans online remained doubtful. One user posted: “Personally I do not think it’s a penalty bc I don’t think a couple of leaves is improving the lie, and I think his intent wasn’t to improve it. But it’s not a clear-cut answer either way.”

Others highlighted the fact that the branch remained intact as the reason Olazabal escaped punishment. A fan posted: “The branch is still there. He didn’t break any rule.

“There is no penalty if the fallen leaves did not improve the player’s conditions affecting the stroke,” another wrote. One more elaborated on the rule, posting: “Here’s the simple workaround in situations like this. You take your practice swings sideways away from the ball – before you even think of addressing the ball, and you swing it about 120 mph to “accidentally” break the branch off. Then, you address the ball and take practice swings a couple inches from the ball – no one knows if the branch was originally in your swing plane or not. No rule is broken.”

Olazabal was delighted with his display, telling reporters: “Well, I’ve been playing this golf course 37 years. You know, that helps, to be honest. You know, my short game was really nice today. It has to be in order to put a decent score, because I’m going to miss a lot of greens hitting woods onto the greens. As hard as the greens are, I know I’m going to miss a lot of greens.

“So, first of all, you have to think about what will be the best side to miss, which side will give you the best chances to up-and-down, and you play from there… It was a good round. I mean, I’m pretty happy with it. If somebody would have told me I was going to shoot 2-over par at the beginning of the week the first round, I would have take it.”