The world of golf has had a weird last month or so. Defending PGA Champion Phil Mickelson withdrew from the event due to controversy surrounding his involvement with a Saudi Arabian backed breakaway tour from the PGA, NFL quarterbacks shanked a bunch of tee shots out in Las Vegas, and now former green jacket winner Hideki Matsuyama has been disqualified from the Memorial Tournament for using an illegally marked club.
PGA Tour rules official Steve Rintoul explained the tour's decision to remove Matsuyama from competition Thursday by citing PGA Tour rule 4.1a.
"Unfortunately, our committee learned right after Hideki had teed off that he may be carrying a club that would be nonconforming," Rintoul said as seen on Golf Channel's coverage of the tournament. "You can see... there's a substance applied to the face by a gentlemen who works on Hideki's clubs."
Rintoul said his PGA rules team approached Matsuyama on the second hole to ask if he had used the club and the former Masters champion was honest in saying he had. Four holes later, he would be removed from the competition.
"And applying a small, discrete dot with a Sharpie to help you with alignment is fine," Rintoul said. "We have players who do it all the time. But the amount of substance that was up on the face of the club, when we sent it to the USGA, their equipment standards guys, it was just excessive."
Matsuyama's removal from the field didn't shake up the odds much, as Cameron Smith (+700), Davis Riley (+1100) and Cameron Young (+1100) are still the betting favorites to win the PGA's Memorial Tournament according to DraftKings Sportsbook.
