It’s never nice when a PGA Tour player is disqualified from an event for a completely unintentional breach of the rules.
The PGA Tour have evolved as an entity over the years, with different, and certainly more modern, rules coming into place.
The most recent example of that was when range-finders were allowed for the first time at the RBC Heritage on Hilton Head Island this week.
On the most part, the rules are fairly straightforward and entirely fair.
However, there are one or two punishments for certain rules that just seem to be incredibly harsh on the players who fall foul of them.
A perfect example of that occurred at the Corales Puntacana Championship in the Dominican Republic on Saturday.
PGA Tour release statement after Ben Crane is disqualified
Joel Dahmen leads the Corales Puntacana Championship on 17-under par heading into the final day on Sunday.
Dahmen will be full of excitement ahead of the challenge lying in wait on Sunday afternoon.
However, Ben Crane will be waking up this morning feeling truly devastated.
Crane – a 49-year-old veteran – has won five times on the PGA Tour, most recently at the Fedex St Jude Classic in 2014.
He made the cut at the Corales Puntacana Championship, after solid rounds of 69 and 71.
However, he was disqualified during round three on Saturday after playing the wrong ball on the eighth hole and failing to correct the error before hitting a shot on the ninth.
The PGA Tour released a statement on X explaining this:
Crane then explained on his social media accounts how the misunderstanding came about:
“On the eighth hole, Saturday, I hit my tee shot into the hazard. After I hit the hazard, I went forward and took a drop. In the fairway, there were two balls, both mine and me and my caddy were like ‘wait a minute, what’s going on’.
“We realised that my ball has hit off the rocks and gone out onto the fairway. I now have two balls on the fairway. I assume that my ball on the right was the second ball I put in play. I play that golf ball, putt out, but realise there’s a rock scuff on that ball. I didn’t do a good job when I took the drop of identifying which ball I was playing. I realised I had played the wrong golf ball and I had to disqualify myself.”
That is certainly an incredibly harsh punishment. That said, Crane has been around a long time, and he should have been more diligent before playing his shot.
However, the experienced PGA Tour player wasn’t the only one to fall foul of the rules this week…
Why Justin Thomas received a one-stroke penalty at the RBC Heritage
There was a rule infraction at Harbour Town on Saturday.
Justin Thomas drove his ball on the second hole into the waste area left of the fairway.
And when trying to move stones in the waste area, he was deemed to have caused his ball to move.
Thomas received a one-stroke penalty, but he still made a par five on the hole, and eventually shot a two-under round of 69 to trail leader Si Woo Kim by just one shot heading into the final round.
The 31-year-old American will be praying that that stroke doesn’t cost him his first win in three years. And on the same token, Ben Crane will be hoping to bounce back from the unfortunate incident at the Corales Puntacana Championship on Saturday.
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