Five-Time PGA Tour Winner Disqualified From Corales Puntacana Championship Over Rules Incident

After two rounds of the Corales Puntacana Championship, there would have been sighs of relief from Ben Crane when he narrowly made the cut following rounds of 69 and 71.

However, his joy was cut short when he was disqualified following an incident on the eighth hole of his third round. Crane played a wrong ball on the hole, a mistake that would typically lead to a two-stroke penalty, although that’s only if the error is corrected by playing the right ball. Sadly, for Crane, that didn’t happen. Instead, he teed off on the ninth and was later disqualified, with confirmation coming from PGA Tour Communications on X.

Crane’s failure to correct the error fell foul of Rule 6.3c(1) in the Rules of Golf, which states: “A player must not make a stroke at a wrong ball,” before adding: “The player must correct the mistake under the Rules by playing the right ball from its original spot or by taking relief under the Rules.”

The rule then spells out the penalty for not correcting the error by the next hole, stating: “If the player does not correct the mistake before making a stroke to begin another hole or, for the final hole of the round, before returning their scorecard, the player is disqualified.”

Afterwards, Crane explained what had happened in a video he posted on X, where he detailed how, following a drop after a tee shot reached a penalty area, he then discovered he had two balls on the fairway, with his initial ball apparently having come back into play after hitting a rock. He then played a wrong ball, which ultimately led to him needing to disqualify himself.

To rub salt into Crane’s wounds, he had not even been in the initial field, instead listed as an alternate before confirmation of his appearance came after Sean O’Hair withdrew.

Crane would have been hoping to produce a solid finish in the Dominican Republic which, as well as giving him a share of the $4m purse, would have also handed him a lift after a prolonged struggle for form.

The most recent of Crane's five PGA Tour titles came way back in 2014 at the FedEx St. Jude Classic. However, it is now over six years since his most recent top 10 on the PGA Tour, a T8 at the 2019 Puerto Rico Open.

The former World No.30 also headed into this week’s event ranked 1,664^th in the world – a position that his disqualification will do nothing to help.

Crane also finished 238^th on the 2024 FedEx Cup standings, far beneath the position he would need to acquire even conditional PGA Tour status for this season. As a result, it was only his third start of the year, with one previous appearance on the Korn Ferry Tour and an outing on the PGA Tour’s Puerto Rico Open both resulting in missed cuts.

At the halfway stage of the Corales Puntacana Championship, Joel Dahmen held a four-shot lead.