Russell Henley follows his conscience and misses Mayakoba cut

Golf is a gentleman’s sport. Russell Henley (picture), who has three PGA Tour wins, followed his conscience and missed the cut.

Henley finished the second round of the Mayaokba Golf Classic on Sunday with a 2-under 69. While signing balls for fans after the round, the 30-year-old realized that he had used a different type of ball from the same brand during the round. Henley said he has no idea how the ball has gotten in his bag.

It is a violation of “One Ball Rule” to use different models of balls. Professional golfers are required to use the same model of ball from the same brand throughout the entire round. Anyone who violates the rule receives a two-stroke penalty for each hole. Having been used different type of balls on four holes, Russell suffered a total of 8 strokes as a penalty. As a result, Russell went from 7-under overall to missing the cut.

Tour Rules Official Brad Fabel said it took them one and a half hours to make the decision since it was such a small difference. “He was great. I’ve gotten a ton of respect for that gentleman,” said the official.


Heon-Jae Lee uni@donga.com