Rory McIlroy had a controversial putt during the opening round of the Valero Texas Open, which divided fans on social media.

McIlroy shot 3-under 69, putting up a clean sheet on Thursday with the help of three birdies. However, one of those birdies came on a par 5, hole 8 which raised the eyebrows of several critics. After escaping from the bunker, he made a great putt from 13 feet away. However, before going inside the cup, the ball took a little longer than usual, and a couple more seconds could have cost him one stroke.

As the Northern Irishman hit the shot, the ball stopped on the edge of the cup. Everyone on the course was looking at the ball anxiously and waiting for its fate as the golfer walked towards the pin. After taking a few seconds, the ball went in within 10 seconds.

Although the ball took more than ten seconds to go in, the clock started when McIlroy reached near the pin. As per Rule 13.3(a), the player gets a good amount of time to reach the hole before the countdown starts. Hence, the four-time major champion was not given a penalty by the officials.

A similar incident happened a couple of weeks ago during the Players Championship, when Austin Eckroat was handed a one-stroke penalty after the ball took more than 10 seconds to drop in.

Upon being asked about the situation during the post-round interview, McIlroy said the ball dropped in due to the wind.

“I backed off the ball twice because of the wind,” he said. “I could feel the wind at my back, so I’m like do I play the wind, do I not play the wind? When I ended up hitting the putt, there wasn’t really a ton of wind there and I thought I missed it on the left side. Obviously the ball hung on the edge and I was just hoping for a gust of wind to come to blow it in and thankfully it did before the 10-second mark.”