“Serious misconduct contrary to the spirit of the game”! A player disqualified on the PGA Tour for breaking a very rare rule…

A Mexican player, who was playing at home during the World Wide Technology Championship, was disqualified for not respecting the provisional ball rule. The incident took place in rather strange circumstances…

At 27, the Mexican Emilio Gonzalez had to live a dream week on the El Cardonal Diamante course, in Cabo San Lucas, where he played in his country his second tournament of the PGA Tour thanks to an exemption. But the experience turned into a nightmare since not only did he miss the cut at World Wide Technology Championshipbut he was then disqualified after the fact by the refereeing body for having violated the so-called provisional ball rule, rule 18.3 (discussed here at length in this article).

What exactly happened? On hole 15 of his second round, Emilio Gonzalez sent his drive into an inhospitable desert area. He then played a provisional ball, full fairway, on this short par 4. The first ball was found by spectators before the authorized three-minute limit (which we also mention in this article).

But according to the referees who decided on the disqualification, the player did not make the necessary effort to identify his first ball and continued to play his provisional. He scored bogey on this hole with this second ball.

Serious misconduct contrary to the spirit of the game

The rule says: “ If the provisional ball has not become the ball in play and a ball is found that could be the original ball, the player must make every reasonable effort to identify that ball. If the player does not do so, the Committee may disqualify the player under rule 1.2a if it decides that this is a serious offense contrary to the spirit of the game.. »

No doubt Emilio Gonzalez felt that he had a better chance of scoring better with his second ball, but as his first ball had not been declared lost, he therefore made a mistake. But this seems to be more of a blunder, a lack of knowledge of the rules, rather than an attempt to cheat, especially since the Mexican had little chance of making the cut at that moment.

He was also eliminated. Then disqualified.

Photo Brennan Asplen / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP