Things appeared to be trending in the right direction for five-time PGA Tour winner Ben Crane this week at the Corales Puntacana Championship when he made his first cut of the year by posting rounds of 69 and 71 at the Corales Golf Course.
But during Saturday’s third round, a mishap forced the University of Oregon product out of the tournament.
Crane played the wrong ball on the 8th hole after he had dropped a ball.
Here’s how Crane explained it, via X.
“I hit my tee shot in the hazard. After I hit it in the hazard, I went forward and took a drop and played another ball into the fairway. Now there’s two balls in the fairway and they’re both mine,” he said. “It’s like, wait a minute, what’s going on? We realized that my ball has hit off the rocks and gone out of the fairway now I have two balls in the fairway, I assume that hit my ball on the right was the … second one I put in play. And I play that golf ball and putt out and realize there’s a big rock stuck on that ball. And you know you do a good job of identifying when I took my drop of what number I was playing. And I realized I had played the wrong golf ball through the hole.
“And realize I have to disqualify myself because I’m pretty sure that’s the ball that I had abandoned, and I played it.”
The official ruling, according to the PGA Tour, is that Crane was penalized for a breach of Rule 6.3c (1). Crane played a wrong ball on hole No. 8 and failed to correct the error before making a stroke to begin hole No. 9.
Crane’s last victory came over a decade ago, at the 2014 FedEx St. Jude Classic. He failed to make the cut in Puerto Rico earlier this year in his only other start.
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