Correct, it wasn't a lateral water hazard. Woods went into a ditch across the front of the green, and it was marked with yellow lines indicating that it was a "hazard".
However...
[TEXTAREA]When your ball comes to rest within
any water hazard, you always have the option of playing the ball from its at rest position. That is to say, if the ball is barely in the water, you might opt to strike the ball from right where it is.
Or, you may manually move the ball to a more favorable striking location and accept a one-stroke penalty.
Now, where may you move the ball to?
Well, you are permitted to walk back to the location of the shot that propelled your ball into the drink in the first place. Essentially, this is "stroke and distance" and means that if your second shot is the one that went into the water, you get to try that shot again... but now you're shooting your fourth!
Also look for a designated "drop area" typically situated along one edge of the hazard. There'll be a sign or white lime circle on the grass where you are expected to drop your ball and continue play.
If no designated "drop area" exists, you also have the option of dropping the ball within two club lengths of a point along the margin of the hazard... that point being where your ball actually first flew, bounded or rolled
into the water hazard.
If the water hazard is not a lateral water hazard, you have another option. You may drop the ball as in the above paragraph, but you are not limited to two club lengths. In other words, you may continue walking away from the margin of the water hazard in a line directly away from the pin any arbitrary distance and drop your ball.[/TEXTAREA]
The highlighted part is what Woods did. He was entitled to do that, because the hazard was not a
lateral water hazard...
[TEXTAREA]Most water hazards are situated within the fairway or actually cross the fairway
(such as a stream). But some water hazards line the sides of the fairway and are called lateral water hazards for that reason.
In general, the distinction is that lateral water hazards are those which you cannot drop a ball behind, should your ball land in it.[/TEXTAREA]
[TEXTAREA]
RULE 26-1. Relief for Ball in Water Hazard
It is a question of fact whether a ball that has not been found after having been struck toward a water hazard is in the hazard. In the absence of knowledge or virtual certainty that a ball struck toward a water hazard, but not found, is in the hazard, the player must proceed under Rule 27-1.
If a ball is found in a water hazard or if it is known or virtually certain that a ball that has not been found is in the water hazard (whether the ball lies in water or not), the player may under penalty of one stroke:
a. Proceed under the stroke and distance provision of Rule 27-1 by playing a ball as nearly as possible at the spot from which the original ball was last played (see Rule 20-5); or
b. Drop a ball behind the water hazard, keeping the point at which the original ball last crossed the margin of the water hazard directly between the hole and the spot on which the ball is dropped, with no limit to how far behind the water hazard the ball may be dropped; or
c. As additional options available only if the ball last crossed the margin of a lateral water hazard, drop a ball outside the water hazard within two club-lengths of and not nearer the hole than
(i) the point where the original ball last crossed the margin of the water hazard or
(ii) a point on the opposite margin of the water hazard equidistant from the hole.
When proceeding under this Rule, the player may lift and clean his ball or substitute a ball.[/TEXTAREA]
The only way that what Woods did was illegal was if this particular water hazard had been deemed a lateral water hazard (it certainy was NOT lateral under the Rules of Golf), and that could have been promulgated in several places, including;
1. The "local rules" for Augusta National
2. Conditions of the tournament
3. Conditions of the USGA/PGA (or which ever body under which the tournament is run)