PGA Tour golfer Davis Riley made an eagle on Saturday in the final hole of the second round at CJ Cup Byron Nelson.
Riley was under five after 36 holes. This was a cut line that was predicted to have a small number of golfers still playing at TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney, Texas. The second round was not completed Friday due to inclement weather.
Riley, the world’s No. 98th player, informed the official PGA Tour Rules that he saw the adjustable distance of the slope when measuring his tee shot on the par 3 17th hole, the eighth hole of the round.
The PGA Tour is experimenting with allowing golfers to use rangefinders to speed up their play, but is not permitted to use the slope feature. This is the third event in which the device is being used.
“Unfortunately, it’s one of those moments when your heart sinks a little, and you’re just throwing away the two shots,” Riley said. “It’s what it is. That’s the rule of golf. And we certainly have a period of trial with this, and I know that (the American Golf Association) is trying to do something about the range finder and pace of play.”
Riley hit a tee shot at 17-12 feet to create par. After finishing the hall, he informed the official PGA Tour Rules Kentucket about the incident. Tackett told him there was a two-stroke penalty because he violated Rule 4.3, and Riley would be disqualified from the tournament if it happened again.
Double bogey 5 dropped him to 3 under. He had birdies on 18th and 4th, and bogeys on 3th and 6th.
Riley took a six-stroke lead at 18 under, with 13 shots behind 36-hole leader Scotty Schaeffler.
“At that moment, I was like, ‘Wow,’ and I was free,” Riley said. “It’s just one of those terrible times. It was a tough time, and it was just a bad break. What you can simmer it is that by the time you put the things there and pull it out, it switched from raw numbers to ramps. That was tough.”
Ironically, Riley didn’t get much advantage as the golf course at TPC Craig Ranch was very flat and there wasn’t much need to know the slopes of the shot.
Still, Riley said he must self-report the case to protect the field.
“I love this game so it’s very important to me,” Riley said. “It’s like my coach who has been infiltrated with me since I was a child. It’s a game of integrity. So you play with it and act that way. When that kind of thing happens, you have to own it, and that’s part of the game, and it’s the integrity of the game.”
It wasn’t the first time Riley had called a penalty on her. In the final match of the US junior amateur in 2013, he was evaluated for a one-stroke penalty when he said the ball moved while he addressed the putt. He lost to Schaeffler, 3 and 2.