Golfer disqualifies himself six days after tournament

Chris Chase, USA TODAY Sports | USATODAY

Blayne Barber made the cut by five strokes in the first stage of the PGA's rigorous Q-school, moving him onto the next round of qualifying to earn his tour card. Yet something was nagging at him.

The former Auburn golfer was thinking about the penalty he took in the bunker of the 13th hole at Callaway Gardens in Georgia. Barber thought he brushed a leaf while in the trap and immediately penalized himself.

His brother, who was serving as his caddy, said he hadn't seen the leaf move. Barber assessed the one-shot penalty anyway, then told his playing partners of the violation. But while discussing the incident with a former college teammate after the round, he learned that moving a leaf in a bunker is a two-stroke penalty, not one.

Barber's brother insisted the leaf hadn't moved, so Blayne played the next two rounds. He was unable to shake the thoughts of what happened in that bunker.

"I continued to pray about it and think about it, and I just did not have any peace about it," Barber told GolfWeek. "I knew I needed to do the right thing. I knew it was going to be disqualification."

He called the PGA six days later to disqualify himself for signing an improper scorecard.

"I just feel peace about it," he said

1. After learning of the rule, an ethical man like Barber had no wiggle room. No matter whether he touched the leaf or not, he had still signed an incorrect scorecard. He either didn't touch the leaf and should have been assessed no penalty or he touched the leaf and would have had a two-stroke penalty. That's not to diminish his sportsmanship at all (we'll get to that), but the true error was in the assessment of the rule. His caddy and playing partners owe him a round or seven for not alerting him to this fact.

2. We often hear of stories like this in golf, so there's a tendency to think all golfers are virtuous beacons of sportsmanship. And I'd say that most are. Still, I wonder how many Q schoolers wouldn't have had an attack of conscience and would have let the leaf thing slide? We'd never know if so.

3. In the NFL, Pete Carroll can continue to insist that Golden Tate caught the ball in the end zone even though everyone in America knows otherwise. In golf, an unknown player can't rest for six days because he thinks he may have moved a leaf in a bunker.

4. While laying awake and thinking of similar penalties missed, I realized I shot a 118 last weekend and not the 94 on my card.

5. The worst part of all: Barber would have still advanced even with the two-stroke penalty.