VIDEO footage has emerged of Justin Thomas clearly kicking his own ball.
The incident has Ryder Cup fans claiming the Team USA star cheated, however it appeared accidental.
The American was stuck in the rough on the sixth hole of the Saturday morning foursomes alongside partner Jordan Spieth, against Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood.
Having already seen a contentious ruling go against him with the ball embedded in the thick, long grass, a furious Thomas only managed to move the ball a couple of feet sideways with his fluffed shot as he failed to get it out on to the fairway.
However, as the ball pops up and lands by his right foot, he clearly steps on it.
And that sees the ball move again - prompting Thomas to desperately try and move out of the way as he waved his arm in frustration.
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Striking the ball with the body can be punished by a one-stroke penalty in golf if the ball has stopped moving.
There would be no penalty had the ball still been in motion, and the touch accidental.
A player is also not penalised if it wasn't intentional.
It is unclear if Thomas told a referee what happened.
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Many fans on social media believe Thomas should have admitted his unfortunate error and accepted any subsequent penalty as adjudged by the Ryder Cup officials.
Spieth took the USA pairing's third shot from where the ball landed before they eventually scored a six, losing the hole as Fleetwood and McIlroy recorded a birdie three.
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Thomas and Spieth went on to go down 2&1 in the match to the European duo dubbed Fleetwood Mac.
One Twitter user said: "JT just kicked his ball!!"
Another wrote: "Did JT not kick the ball there?"
A third added: "Loss of hole surely?! He called it as well."
A fourth commented: "I thought it was an accident live but this makes it seem almost deliberate…"
There was plenty more controversy on a thrilling second day of Ryder Cup action at Marco Simone in Rome.
Just a hole before kick-gate, a 'rattled' Spieth snapped angrily at photographers after a poor shot.
His USA team-mate Sam Burns then locked horns with the partisan European crowd as he mocked them after nailing a putt.
The fiery Yank yelled: "What's that? I can't hear you. I can't f***ing hear you."
And tempers continued to flare even after Patrick Cantlay's crunch putt on the 18th green to stun McIlroy and Matt Fitzpatrick.
That birdie on the par five secured a dramatic one-hole victory for the controversial star, who is reportedly refusing to wear the Team USA cap over a Ryder Cup pay row.
The Americans' reactions to Cantlay's magic moment prompted a furious altercation behind the scenes after the close of play.
A raging McIlroy had to be held back by Shane Lowry as he tried to argue with Cantlay's caddie Joe LaCava, accusing the man on the bag of over-exuberant celebrations before McIlroy took his own putt with a chance to halve the match.
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Europe, though, know they go into Sunday's 12 singles matches still in full control of the 2023 Ryder Cup.
They lead 10½-5½ and Luke Donald's Roman soldiers know they need just four more points to regain the iconic trophy.
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