James Nagle’s run at the U.S. Junior Amateur ended even before he could make a mark. The rising high school senior from Ponte Vedra Beach was competing at Saucon Valley Country Club’s Grace Course in Pennsylvania when officials disqualified him for something he did not know about. Nagle opened up about the controversial incident later in an Instagram story.
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The Florida native, who carded a 6-over 76 in R1, breached Model Local Rule G-12 multiple times on Monday, July 20. According to the USGA, Rule 4.3a of G-12 states: “During a round, a player must not use any written, printed, electronic, or digital materials to help with reading their line of play for any stroke to be made from the putting green.” If a player breaches the rule for the first time, officials give them a general penalty. Second breach leads to disqualification. But the real problem was not the rule itself. It was that the golfer didn’t know that this G-12 is in place at the U.S. Junior Amateur.
“I played in the first round of the U.S. Junior today and unfortunately got disqualified. I was not informed that yardage books with green maps were not permitted to use while putting surface. My playing partner warned me that it wasn’t allowed, so I went to the nearest rules official and explained to them the situation. They told me to finish the round while they reviewed the situation,” wrote James Nagle on his Instagram story. He went on to finish 18 holes, but the effort was in vain as he later explained.
“After shooting a 76 on the Gray Course, they asked me if I was sure I had used it more than once, and that it was for the sole purpose of getting green information. I said yes. This resulted in a DQ,” he concluded before adding, “Thank you, @USGA and @soukonvalleycc for putting an amazing event.” While you might call this a rookie mistake, two things make Nagle’s case different from most cases.
Firstly, the USGA has only started implementing this in junior tournaments since 2023. According to a report from Golf Channel, the USGA handed the golfers a one-sheet explanation for G-12 and reminded them that they were responsible for their caddies’ actions too.
Secondly, AJGA doesn’t implement Model Local Rule G-12; instead, they rely on G-11, which is similar but has minor differences. But most importantly, it might be easy to brush this off as a casual mistake by a junior golfer; this is far more common than you think. And pro golfers have been DQ’d as well.
Similar to AJGA, the PGA Tour doesn’t use G-12 and relies on a linear G-11 instead. As recently as in this year’s February, Michael Brennan, the long-hitting pro who won the 2025 Bank of Utah Championship, got himself disqualified after reporting to rules officials. His story was even more astonishing.
At the 2026 Farmers Insurance Open, Brennan used a yardage book with a few transcribed notes on it that he took from a greens map shared by his course analyst. After the round, his analyst said it wasn’t allowed to transcribe from green maps to a yardage book and use it in a tournament. Brennan reported himself to the rules official.
Had he used it only once, he would have incurred a two-stroke penalty. But since Brennan used it throughout the round, he was disqualified. The rule came into effect in 2019 on the PGA Tour, and within a few months, Alex Cejka was the first victim. In his case, however, the yardage book was larger than permitted.
As for Nagle, it was unfortunate but far from the only time a player was disqualified from U.S. Junior Amateur after inadvertently breaking an esoteric rule.
According to Golf Channel, 17-year-old Banks Steele was disqualified last year at Trinity Forest. His mistake? Well, in the second round after his caddie, whom he hired for that week, measured the wind by throwing his hat into the air. Not once but twice. What they didn’t know was this was a breach of Rule 4.3a(2).
Rule 4.3a(2) states that a golfer or his caddie cannot use any artificial objects to gauge wind speed. While it seemed innocuous to Steele and his caddie, that hat was considered an artificial object. Throwing a blade of grass is allowed, but not a hat or powder.
His playing partners were also unaware of the rule, but nevertheless, Steele got disqualified. So Nagle should perhaps find some solace in knowing he wasn’t the only teenager to suffer from a quirky rule.
James Nagle qualified for this year by medaling at the Massachusetts sectional, closing his round with an eagle on the par-5 18th to seal his spot. He is a University of South Florida verbal commit and appeared on the 2020 Good Good YouTube channel, playing the Pinehurst Cradle course alongside Garrett Clark and PGA Tour winner Akshay Bhatia.
That said, Nagle’s performance has seen growth this season: four top-25 finishes in 6 starts. His best finish came at the Billy Horschel Atlanta Classic last year, where he finished sixth.