A towel, a muddy lie, and a television replay. Those seemingly ordinary elements combined to produce one of the most unusual disqualifications in PGA Tour history.

In February 1987, Craig Stadler appeared to have secured a share of second place at the Shearson Lehman Brothers Andy Williams Open at Torrey Pines. However, a few phone calls from television viewers changed everything. It cost the former Masters champion a potential $37,333.33 payday.

The incident began with an attempt to keep his trousers clean.

Rain had fallen the previous night, leaving the ground wet.

Stadler found himself in an awkward position on the 14th hole. His ball was beneath a tree. He had little room to execute his next shot. He needed to get down on his knees to reach the ball, but the wet ground presented another problem.

Wanting to keep his trousers from getting muddy, Stadler placed a towel beneath his knees.

Officials later determined that placing the towel beneath his knees amounted to building a stance. This was prohibited under the rules of golf. The action carried a two-stroke penalty.

The relevant restriction was intended to prevent players from improving their stance or creating more favorable conditions for playing a shot. Stadler’s towel effectively provided a dry surface beneath his knees.

However, the infraction went unnoticed during Saturday’s round.

The turning point came on Sunday when NBC broadcast footage from the previous day’s action.

During the coverage, viewers saw the replay of Stadler kneeling on the towel. Several people watching the broadcast questioned whether his actions were permitted. They contacted the tournament’s press-room office.

Rick Schloss, the tournament’s longtime public-relations director, later recalled receiving one of the first calls.

In a 2017 interview with Golf Digest, Schloss explained that his initial reaction was fairly casual. He was accustomed to receiving unusual calls during tournaments. So he did not immediately assume that the complaint would lead to anything significant.

However, the calls continued. One viewer also wanted to speak with NBC broadcasters Vin Scully and Lee Trevino about what had happened.

Schloss eventually passed the information to a PGA Tour media official, who relayed it to the rules officials.

Glenn Tait, a PGA Tour rules official, subsequently confirmed that several viewers had contacted the tournament.

“Several people called our office in the press room and asked, ‘Is this legal?’ It is not. Stadler signed his scorecard for lower than he should have, he was disqualified,” Tait explained.

But Craig Stadler had already completed his Saturday round and submitted a scorecard that did not include the penalty. Under the rules applied at the time, returning a scorecard with a score lower than the actual score resulted in disqualification.

This meant the issue had moved beyond the original towel incident. Even though the violation itself involved two strokes, the incorrect scorecard made the veteran golfer ineligible to continue in the competition.

The timing also made the situation particularly painful.

According to his subsequent account, the first call about the incident came while he was standing on the 17th tee.

He continued playing and birdied the 72nd hole. He believed that he had secured a share of second place with the birdie.

Instead, he learned that he had been disqualified.

The tournament was won by George Burns, while Stadler’s apparent three-way tie for second would have earned him $37,333.33.

That amount was never deducted from an existing payment. It represented the prize money he would have received had his result stood. The disqualification wiped out that prospective payday entirely.

Craig Stadler insisted he had no intention of cheating

Contemporary reports described Stadler as initially angry after learning about the disqualification. He left without speaking to reporters immediately after the decision.

However, his comments the following day offered a more measured perspective.

Craig Stadler hosted a charity pro-am at Fairbanks Ranch Country Club. Speaking about the incident, he acknowledged that he had violated the rules and accepted the consequences.

“But I broke a rule, I paid the price and I just have to put it behind me,” he said.

His biggest concern was how the incident might affect his reputation.

“The only thing that might seem unfair is the matter of intent. It might cause people to think there was intent involved. There was no intent to cheat at all,” he explained.

Stadler also acknowledged that he had not known about the restriction.

Interestingly, Tait also acknowledged that Stadler probably had not realized he was violating the rule.

“I’m sure he didn’t realize he was violating the rule, but it’s his responsibility to know the rules,” the official said.

The story did not end with Stadler’s disqualification.

Nearly eight years later, in August 1995, he returned to the scene of the incident. He then helped cut down the tree associated with the infamous shot.

According to an Associated Press report published by The Seattle Times on August 8, 1995, Craig Stadler participated in the tree-cutting event the previous day.

It was an organized appearance involving tournament and grounds personnel, rather than an unauthorized act of revenge.

Sections of the trunk were cut into slices, signed by Stadler, and sold to raise money for charity.

Craig Stadler wasn’t the first golfer to face a viewer-reported penalty

Although Craig Stadler’s case became particularly memorable, television viewers had helped identify rules violations in professional golf before 1987.

At the 1980 Tournament of Champions, viewers reportedly overheard Tom Watson giving Lee Trevino advice. Watson received a two-stroke penalty, although he still went on to win the tournament.

At the 1982 event, viewers reported Ron Streck after he broke a tree branch. Officials subsequently assessed him a two-stroke penalty.

There was an important difference between those incidents and Stadler’s case. Watson’s and Streck’s violations were identified on the same day they occurred. Stadler’s violation, meanwhile, was discovered after he had already returned his scorecard.

Two other incidents from 2011 provide even closer comparisons.

Pádraig Harrington’s Disqualification at the Abu Dhabi Championship

At the 2011 Abu Dhabi Championship, Pádraig Harrington opened with a seven-under 65. He was just one stroke behind the leader.

However, a television viewer emailed tournament officials after noticing that Harrington’s ball had moved when he removed his marker.

Harrington believed the ball had returned to its original position, but video footage showed otherwise. He was assessed a two-stroke penalty for failing to replace the ball correctly.

The similarities to Craig Stadler’s case were striking. In both instances, an action went unnoticed during play. Outside scrutiny brought the violation to officials’ attention, and an incorrect scorecard ultimately led to disqualification.

Could the same incident disqualify a golfer today?

Professional golf’s approach to viewer-reported violations has changed considerably since Craig Stadler’s incident.

In 2018, new video-review protocols were introduced to address concerns about outside intervention. Participating organizations included the PGA Tour, LPGA, European Tour, Ladies European Tour, and PGA of America.

Under the protocols, tournament organizations were instructed not to establish procedures for monitoring or following up on television viewers’ calls, emails, or text messages alleging rules violations.

The USGA explained that such interventions could create “an unhealthy perception of random, inconsistent and/or improperly motivated outside intervention in applying the Rules.”

The treatment of scorecard errors also changed.

Under the current Rule 3.3b(3) exception, a player is not automatically disqualified for failing to include penalty strokes that they did not know about before returning their scorecard. If officials discover the violation before the competition closes, they can add the applicable penalty strokes.

Craig Stadler’s 1987 disqualification remains an unusual chapter in PGA Tour history because of the chain of events that followed one seemingly harmless decision.