DP World Tour pro saved after shambolic rules mix-up

There’s not many times that a golfer’s score is lowered after a round has been completed.

But that was the extraordinary outcome after an unusual rules mix-up on the DP World Tour last week.

A rule that had seemingly denied a player from making the cut at the Volvo China Open was reversed amid widespread confusion at the Hidden Grace Golf Club in Shenzhen.

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The incident occurred in Thursday’s first round when the Spaniard Ivan Cantero pushed his tee shot right on the par-5 13th hole.

As reported by Monday Q Info’s Ryan French, Cantero was not aware whether that part of the course was a penalty area, so hit a provisional ball. That is allowed when a player can’t be sure that their ball entered the penalty area.

Cantero stepped up and hit his second drive in the fairway, but his group only realised his first had found the penalty area when they walked off from the tee.

It is understood that Cantero then asked for clarification from a rules official, who told him that he couldn’t play his first ball anymore because he had hit the provisional.

French reports that Cantero made it clear that he wasn’t sure that he had struck his original ball into the penalty area, but a second rules official then also incorrectly ruled that he couldn’t play it.

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With no choice, a “frustrated” Cantero played his fourth shot from the fairway and went on to make a remarkable par on the par-5.

But, crucially, Rule 20.2 in the Rules of Golf states that “if a ruling by a referee is later found to be wrong, the ruling will be corrected unless it is too late to do so.”

After Cantero’s round, rules officials met with the 28-year-old to inform him that they had given an incorrect ruling. One stroke was taken off his first round, with his par on the 18th turning into a birdie.

Fittingly, that allowed him to make the cut on the number after a 71 in his second round left him three-under for the tournament. Had his score not been changed, he would have missed the weekend by one.

Cantero ultimately finished the weather-shortened event in a tie for 23rd, which banked him a cheque of well over $20,000.

But, bizarrely, we’ll never know what Cantero would really have shot on that par-5 13th on Thursday had he been correctly allowed to play his original ball.

Ben Parsons joined bunkered as a Content Producer in 2023 and is the man to come to for all of the latest news, across both the professional and amateur games. Formerly of The Mirror and Press Association, he is a member at Halifax Golf Club and is a long-suffering fan of both Manchester United and the Wales rugby team.