Kenny Perry has been cleared of any wrongdoing for his pre-shot actions during his playoff victory at the FBR Open in February, but the debate continues in golf circles. (For the definitive dissection of the incident, see Lawrence Donegan's article in The Observer.) The question at hand is whether Perry improved his lie, and, if so, whether he intended to.

It seems most agree on the first point, that Perry's lie did get better. The second question, of intent, is thornier because of its subjectivity. Was he trying to improve his lie, or was the improvement incidental? John Paramor, chief referee of the European Tour, said in Donegan's article that he agreed with the PGA Tour's ruling, that Perry was not guilty of an infraction:

"The fact is the player is allowed to put his club behind the ball, otherwise he would never be allowed to address his ball in any circumstance. As soon as any player puts his club on the grass behind the ball, then the grass will be flattened," he says. "The issue is, is there excessive pressing down with the club?" In other words, was there intent? "Looking at this, I don't think Kenny Perry did use excessive pressure when he put his club behind the ball. It does look bad, it does look like the lie was improved but, as long as there was no intent to do so, and I don't think there was, then it is not a penalty."

After watching the video below, tell us what you think of the incident in our comments section, and see what our experts had to say in this week's PGA Tour Confidential.