Luiten, 25, a PGA European Tour member from the Netherlands, had signed his scorecard believing that his main worry was shooting a low score on Friday so he could make the cut in his first United States appearance as a professional. He opened with a four-over-par 76, or at least he thought he had.

Moments after signing for the 76, he learned he had bigger concerns. He had violated Rule 18-2b, which states, “If a player’s ball in play moves after he has addressed it (other than as a result of a stroke), the player is deemed to have moved the ball and incurs a penalty of one stroke.”

Luiten’s problem began when he hit his drive near a hazard left of the 11th hole. As he was taking his stance, his ball moved. He notified his playing partner that the ball had moved, but he had not grounded his club. The fellow competitor, Bobby Gates, who did not know that Luiten’s ball was actually resting on the red hazard line when it moved, told him there was no penalty. Luiten played on, and Gates later told the tour official on the hole that Luiten’s ball had moved before he had grounded his club. The official also said no penalty.

This all changed when Luiten told the same official that the ball had been on the hazard line and that he stood in the hazard when he played it. That was a violation, which would have added a stroke. Because Luiten did not replace the ball, that would have added another stroke. But all that was moot because he had signed for a 76 rather than a 78, and the penalty for signing an incorrect scorecard is disqualification.

Luiten, still in Dublin awaiting Monday’s sectional qualifier for the United States Open, was playing in a Nationwide pro-am on Saturday and was not immediately available to comment.

According to the rules official with knowledge of the Rule 18-2b modification discussions, Luiten would not incur a penalty in the same situation after Jan. 1.