Ben Crane’s first made cut of the year has ended in disqualification.
Crane was DQ’d from Saturday’s third round of the Corales Puntacana Championship in the Dominican Republic for playing a wrong ball.
According to the PGA Tour, Crane breached Rule 6.3c(1) after he hit the wrong ball on the eighth hole and failed to correct the error before playing a stroke on the ninth hole.
Crane later took to social media to further explain the situation. He drove his initial tee ball into the penalty area before taking a drop outside the hazard and hitting his third shot into the fairway. However, when he proceeded down the fairway, he discovered that his first tee ball was also in the fairway, presumably having kicked off a rock and kicking back in play.
That’s where Crane made his mistake.
“I assumed that my ball on the right was the second ball I put in play, and I played that golf ball and then find out that there’s a big rock scuff on that ball,” Crane said. “And I did not do a good job of identifying when I took my drop of what number I was playing, and I realized that I had played the wrong golf ball through the hole, and I realized that I have to disqualify myself because I’m pretty sure that that was the ball that I had abandoned and I played it.”
Had Crane not holed his putt for double bogey and then teed off on the next hole, he could’ve gone back and corrected his mistake. But he didn’t, and after a bogey on No. 11, he ended his tournament.
This was only Crane’s second PGA Tour start of the year as he’s only competing off past champion’s status. He missed the cut in Puerto Rico earlier this season.
