PGA Tour hopeful explains bizarre DQ from Korn Ferry Tour event

PGA Tour hopeful Cole Hammer says it 'didn't sit right with him' to ignore a situation which ultimately saw him and another golfer disqualified from a Korn Ferry Tour event. 

Hammer and his playing partner Nelson Ledesma were both booted out of the Memorial Health Championship in Springfield, Illinois, whilst they were in the middle of playing their second round on Friday. 

The rules violation actually occurred during the first round on Thursday at Panther Creek Country Club's par-3 17th hole. 

According to MondayQInfo, Hammer hit a 4-iron onto the green and Ledesma's caddie then flashed four fingers at the golfer. 

Hammer said out of instinct that he also held up four fingers to confirm what club he had used. 

This was a breach of rule 10.2a, which prohibits players from giving or asking for advice from anyone other than their caddie. 

Hammer slept on what transpired and spoke to a rules official before getting his second round underway. 

He was told to carry on playing whilst they investigated. 

The pair were asked about the situation on the course and it was determined they were to be disqualified under Rule 3.3 as they had both signed their scorecards. 

Had they not signed their cards before raising the issue then they could have escaped with a two-stroke penalty each. 

Hammer, who has never been disqualified from any event, told Golf Channel he simply couldn't ignore what happened. 

"I feel like I know the rules really well, and I've always tried to uphold them to the best of my ability,” Hammer said.

"It just didn't sit right with me last night, and when I woke up this morning, I felt compelled to go talk to the rules official and tell him what had happened.

"I didn't think that they would be disqualified. I just thought since I was the one who gave the sign that I would be disqualified. 

"And I thought that was worst-case scenario."

He added: "The decision made is the correct one, according to the rules.

"I can't do much with it except accept it.

"I feel a lot better now that I at least got it off my chest because it was weighing me down. 

"It's just unfortunate that it’s a caused a little storm around the tournament."

Both Hammer and Ledesma were comfortably outside the projected cut mark when they were disqualified. 

Hammer is currently 78th in the Korn Ferry Tour standings. 

The top 20 players in the standings at the conclusion of the season earn PGA Tour cards. 

Brooks Koepka's Masters incident

The situation between Hammer and Ledesma was similar to the one that transpired at the 2023 Masters. 

Brooks Koepka's caddie, Ricky Elliot, became the centre of attention during the first round at Augusta National owing to what some believed was a breach of the golf rules. 

On the par-5 15th, Elliot was filmed appearing to mouth the word 'five' towards Gary Woodland's caddie. 

Koepka also appeared to flash five whilst he took his golf glove off. 

Augusta National's rules committee interviewed all those involved and later determined no breach had occurred. 

Former European Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley later said he was staggered by the decision as he believed it was a clear infraction.