Clark calls penalty on himself after failing to replace ball

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Tim Clark's 71 turned into a 73 after a penalty late Saturday.

Tim Clark finished the third round of the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational in a tie for third place, but within an hour was tied for 14th after being assessed a two-shot penalty for not properly replacing his ball on the 16th green.

Clark's ball was in the line of playing partner Padraig Harrington, so he moved the mark one club head away.

After completing a 71, he expressed doubt about whether he had returned his ball to the correct spot after Harrington putted.

"It is an unfortunate situation," Clark said. "What happened is that Padraig asked me to move my ball on the last hole, and it got me thinking that I may have forgotten to move it back on the 16th hole. I just had a feeling that I had not moved it back."

PGA TOUR official Slugger White looked at television footage and determined that Clark had not put the ball in the proper spot. He then showed the video to Clark, who agreed.

"He came up and he looked at it and he knew right away as well -- as honest as he could possibly be," White said. "I'm sure it'll come back to him tenfold. That's the gentleman's game we deal with."

Clark was relieved he had done the right thing.

"The good thing about it is that I called it on myself," he said. "That sort of saved some integrity for me. That is about the only good thing that I can take out of the situation."