Ben Crane disqualified from tournament over stickers on clubs!

PGA Tour pro Ben Crane was disqualified from this week's Boise Open on the Web.com Tour due to knowingly playing with non-conforming clubs. 

According to a statement from Jim Duncan, vice president of rules and competition, Crane, who started his tournament on the 10th hole, discovered he had training stickers on both his driver and his 6-iron.

The stickers are used to collect data about his shots when he practices, so in addition to this being an unusual penalty, it's also one that could only happen to the modern Tour pro.

The American alerted officials about his driver as soon as the 11th hole, and because it happened after he finished his first hole, he was hit with a four-stroke penalty (violation of Rule 4-1) instead of just two strokes.

While he immediately took the driver out of play, he didn't pull the 6-iron from his bag until the 14th hole (his fifth hole of the day). As a result, he was given another four-stroke penalty, the maximum allowed.

According to the Web.com Tour, officials conferred with the USGA to see if another penalty was necessary and it was deemed so because the incidents were reported at separate times.

Crane would have started par-par, but was considered 8-over through two holes. He played the last 16 holes in 3-under for a 5-over 77.

However, Crane was then later disqualified from the tournament after revealing further information to Duncan. 

"He came back this morning and said he knew he had the 6-iron, and he's got to make a declaration that that club is out of play," Duncan said.

"Either to a member of the committee, which he could've told (rules official) Andrew Miller, or to one of his fellow playing competitors.

"When he didn't make that declaration, at the point he knew he had to take that club out of play, that's ultimately a disqualification penalty."