Pros calling for the rules official to get free relief is a common sight. It happens every round in every tournament. But pros calling a rules official to report themselves and get penalized? It’s rare, but that’s exactly what Matt Wallace did at the Valspar Championship. He was also “rewarded” in the most unexpected way.

Matt Wallace arrived at the par-5 11th hole having started his second round at 2-over par. The chances of him making the cut looked bleak. On the 11th, his drive found the trees on the right, half-buried under pine straw and leaves. While addressing the ball for his recovery shot, Wallace mistakenly moved it.

The one-time PGA Tour winner realized the mistake, but his next move stood out more for two reasons. One, neither his caddie nor the spectators surrounding him noticed it.  Two, the TV cameras didn’t catch it either. But Matt Wallace was sure that he had moved the ball and called the rules official.

USGA Rule 9.4b states that if the player lifts or deliberately touches their ball at rest or causes it to move, the player gets a one-shot penalty. Matt Wallace had to add one extra stroke to his scorecard. 

“When I was waggling, the ball definitely moved,” the 35-year-old told the media. “Didn’t know if it was in the action of my swing, but I definitely touched it, and the ball moved from that. I just asked a few people around, saying obviously I thought some people would see that, and nobody saw it. So, yeah, maybe a bit of good karma coming my way.”

And good karma did come his way. Not just that he saved par despite the penalty, he birdied three of his last five holes to card a 68, finishing the round at 1-under overall, two shots inside the cut line in the $9.1 million event. Despite Friday being about settling scores at the Copperhead course, Wallace opted to be honest.

“I’d rather miss the cut doing something like that by one shot and then giving it my all for the rest than making it and knowing something’s happened. So I called it on myself, and then I made a few birdies. I’m happy with the outcome, and it’s the right thing to do.”

Matt Wallace went on to shoot 70 the next day and, after the third round, sits at T25. Notably, he isn’t the only golfer who has inflicted a penalty on himself and earned praise for integrity.

A pattern the PGA Tour knows well

In 2010, Brian Davis called a two-stroke penalty on himself during a playoff at the Verizon Heritage after his club grazed a reed on the backswing. Nobody else saw it at that time. However, Davis called the rules official. After carefully watching replays of the incident on TV, he was assessed a two-shot penalty. Davis, who birdied the final hole to force the playoff against Jim Furyk, lost the tournament as a direct result.

He later said he had zero regrets. Davis has since been held up as one of the sport’s clearest examples of integrity over outcome. The tournament was never on the line for Wallace, but the principle was no different from what Davis did in 2010. 14 years later, Sahith Theegala lived up to that standard at the Tour Championship.

In August 2024, Sahith Theegala reported a rules infraction even though broadcasters, after zooming in, found it hard to see. The PGA Tour pro said his club grazed the sand in a bunker. He said he felt the touch even though modern-day technology couldn’t have proven the violation.

He was assessed a two-stroke penalty, which cost him $2.5 million in prize money as he ended up in the 3rd place instead of a T2. Not that he had any regrets about it. Justin Thomas did the same at the 2025 RBC Heritage, calling a one-shot penalty on himself after his ball moved slightly while removing loose debris. The infraction turned a birdie into a par and shifted his leaderboard standing, a consequence he accepted without hesitation or outside prompting.

Russell Henley went a step further. At last year’s Travelers Championship, the PGA Tour pro went to the rules official after he saved par from the rough. Henley believed his ball moved. No footage could prove it, but he said the ball did move by a dimple. He was assessed a one-stroke penalty. Henley said he had to do the right thing and wanted to set an example for his son.

Golf is a gentleman’s game, after all, and these few players have proven that honesty and integrity stand above financial compensation.