Remember not so long ago, during a time of innocence - halcyon days of fore, you might say - when Sergio Garcia was skipping and leaping up the fairway to see how his shot turned out? When he was the fresh young face on tour, adored by fans, untainted by ... anything? Ah, I miss those days.

These days we read stories about how disliked Garcia is by his peers for what some see as a snotty attitude. We watch him spitting into the cup after missing a putt. We hear him defending himself against accusations of cheating.

That's the latest: the cheating talk. Sergio responds:

The situation at issue occurred on the second hole at TPC Sawgrass during the final round of The Players Championship. Garcia's ball came to rest near a drainage grate at the bottom of a small hollow. Garcia took relief from the drain, dropping within one club length of the nearest point of relief. Then he played his next shot.

If you tuned in early to the NBC broadcast, you might recall the shot. As the cameras found Garcia, he was at address with his heels appearing to be on the grate. Johnny Miller remarked that Garcia must really like his lie because he could take relief from the grate since it interfered with his stance. What Miller didn't know was that Garcia had already taken his drop.

But before the cameras found Garcia, the caddie of his playing partner, Cliff Kresge, had challenged Sergio's drop. When Garcia dropped the ball, it rolled back toward the grate, although stopping well short of it. But close enough that Garcia was still standing with his heels on the grate when he played his next shot. Garcia disregarded the caddie's challenge and proceeded with his next shot. (Neither Kresge nor the caddie have publicly commented on the incident, but presumably the caddie was telling Garcia he needed to re-drop.)

A re-drop may have been the prudent thing to do in that situation because of Rule 20-2c(vi):

If other words, if you take relief, you must take full relief. The condition you were taking relief from cannot still be interfering with your swing or stance after you've dropped.

Cheating is a strong word. It means you knew you were breaking the rules but did it anyway in order to gain an advantage. When rules are broken on the PGA Tour, it is almost always the result of a misunderstanding, or an honest mistake. Real cheating almost never happens. I don't think Sergio was guilty of cheating, as just defined, and Sergio says he didn't even make a mistake: