A Mexican golf pro was disqualified from his home country’s biggest tournament after committing a rare “serious misconduct” rules violation.
Emilio Gonzalez was in the second round of Mexico’s World Wide Technology Championship on Friday when the issue arose.
During the PGA Tour event, the 27-year-old hit his tee shot on the 15th hole into a desert area to the side of the fairway. He decided to play a provisional second shot off the tee.
Gonzalez found a ball in the rough, but the tournament chiefs ruled that he “failed to make reasonable efforts to identify the ball.”
The rule states: “If the provisional ball has not become the ball in play and a ball is found that might be the original ball, the player must make all reasonable efforts to identify that ball.”
”If the player fails to do so, the Committee may disqualify the player under Rule 1.2a if it decides that this was serious misconduct contrary to the spirit of the game.”
It was decided that Gonzalez broke the rules and he was booted from the tournament.
He was not docked any of his earnings and will play in next month’s PGA Tour Q School. A top-five finish there would earn Gonzalez a promotion to the main PGA Tour.
It is rare for a tour player to be disqualified from an event. It did happen in February to Jordan Spieth at the Genesis Invitational when he signed an incorrect scorecard.
