'Absolutely disgraceful': Masters rocked by cheating claims

Stewart Hagestad finished with the prestigious honour of being the best-placed amateur at the 2017 Masters, but was he cheating?

Former professional golfer Mark Allen certainly thinks so, saying Hagestad was blatantly flouting the rules at Augusta.

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Hagestad beat Australia's Curtis Luck for low amateur honours, but Allen believes the American had an unfair advantage.

Speaking to SEN's 'Hungry For Sport', Allen accused Hagestad of anchoring his putts by resting a long putter against his chest during his stroke - a practice made illegal in 2016.

Long putters themselves aren't banned, but the act of controlling the putter with your upper body is.

"If he wasn't cheating with that long putter, I'm not here. That was unbelievable," Allen said.

"The rules say your arm is allowed to accidentally brush your shirt (when putting). Well, he 'accidentally' brushed his shirt with that arm and that left hand using a broom action every single time I saw him putt.

"(It's) absolutely disgraceful how the rules of golf have let that happen. Bernhard Langer is still doing it and Ian Woosnam (too).

"You can't have a rule that says you can accidentally brush your arm against a shirt and then do it 'accidentally' every single time you putt.

"What an absolute joke."

Allen says Luck was denied the chance to impress on golf's biggest stage.

"You almost had the situation where he (Luck) wins the US Amateur, wins the Asian Amateur Championship and he should've been the leading amateur here at Augusta, except for the guy cheating with the long putter," Allen said.

Eagle-eyed viewers also took to social media to vent their frustrations that Hagestad wasn't being punished:

Australian Adam Scott is one of the most notable users of the long putter, but was forced to switch to the short variety last year.