Karrie Webb gets a serious assist from the gallery

Karrie Webb is playing in her native Oz this week's for the Women's Australian Open, which meant she was going to have a good following, and some local knowledge, when she teed it up at Royal Melbourne. (Editor's note: Shane's at RM this week and I think I speak for everyone when I say that I truly hate you sometimes, dude.)

What she didn't expect, however, was for the gallery to save her from incurring a two-stroke penalty during the first round. Laboring through the first 12 holes, Webb was struggling to make bogey when she arrived on the green of the difficult 13th hole. After being asked by her playing partner, Yani Tseng, to move her ball mark, Webb committed a cardinal sin byaccidentally replacing her ball mark in the wrong spot (she placed it further away from her original mark).

Had she putted from that spot, Webb would have been forced to tack on two-strokes. But here's where the story gets interesting. As The Age reported, a guy in the gallery yelled out "Excuse me!" as she was approaching her ball, causing Webb to back off and glare at what many thought was a heckler.

It was actually a local club golfer notifying Webb of her error. Talk about getting some home cookin' from the local fans. Webb went on to replace her mark, bogey the hole and shoot 2-over for the day. But needless to say, the wheels could have really come off if she'd taken a two-stroke penalty for the silly mistake.

I wish I could get that kind of assist from my buddies when I played golf. But knowing how cutthroat some of them are, I'm pretty sure they'd tell me about the penalty after the fact, and then take my money.