Phil Mickelson has accused some of his fellow professionals of cheating and wrongly placing their golf balls. 

This development comes in light of Lexi Thompson's controversial four-shot penalty after the American was deemed to have moved her ball from it's original position, according to an email from a TV viewer. 

Mickelson did not agree with the decision and pointed out the flexible nature of the laws when it comes to some of his peers on the grass. 

The three-time Masters winner took this opportunity to bring this seemingly serious, yet subtle, issue into the light. 

"To have a tournament be decided like that, with just a little bit of loose marking, I think it should be reversed. I think that she should be given the trophy," said the 46-year-old. 

"A number of guys on tour are loose with how they mark the ball and have not been called on it.

"They will move the ball two, three inches in front of their mark, and this is an intentional way to get it out of any type of impression and so forth. That kind of stuff needs to stop.

"I feel like we've all kind of been a little lax at times in the markings of our golf ball and I hate to see it cost somebody a major championship because of that."

Under normal circumstances, wrongly placing a ball merits a two-stroke penalty but Thompson was pegged back four strokes for returning an inaccurate scorecard. 

The moment of controversy occurred during the third round of the ANA Inspiration last weekend and has since drawn immense publicity as well as support for the golfer. 

Having led the final round by three shots, Thompson eventually lost out in a play-off with South Korean Ryu So-yeon following the penalty.