A few seconds changed Tour Pro MJ Maguire’s week at the Mercuries Taiwan Masters. The Asian Tour winner had already gone back to the tee to play a replacement ball when a spectator found his original ball. The key question was whether the ball was found before or after the three-minute search time ended. In the end, the ruling meant Maguire was disqualified from the $1.2 million event.
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Maguire shot a one-under 71 in Thursday’s opening round at Taiwan Golf and Country Club and was sitting comfortably inside the top 20. But after finishing his round, he was disqualified, with the reason not clear at first. Golf Monthly later got a statement from the Asian Tour explaining what happened on the par-4 ninth hole.
Maguire’s tee shot landed in the rough to the right of the hole. He, his caddie, another player and a ball spotter searched for it. But when the three-minute search time ended, Maguire walked back to the tee to play another ball under the stroke-and-distance rule because he believed his first ball was lost.
As he was walking back, a spectator found what appeared to be his original ball. The ball spotter went to tell Maguire, who believed the three-minute search time had not yet ended. So, he decided to continue with his original ball. However, the Asian Tour’s rules committee looked into what happened. After speaking to the players and other witnesses in the group, the committee found that more than three minutes had passed between the start of the search and the ball being found.
Under Rule 18.2a, a golf ball is considered lost if it is not found within three minutes of the search starting. This is true even if the ball is found later. So, by the time Maguire’s original ball was found, it was already out of play. When he played it, he was technically playing the wrong ball. Under Rule 6.3c, that meant a two-stroke penalty. He also had to fix the mistake before starting the next hole. Maguire did not correct the mistake in time, which led to his disqualification. The Asian Tour also made it clear that there was no suggestion Maguire was trying to break the rules. The issue was simply that the three-minute search time had already ended when his ball was found.
The 33-year-old American, who lives in St. Petersburg, Florida, has played on several tours since turning professional in 2015. He has also played on the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour Latinoamérica.
His big breakthrough came at the 2024 Black Mountain Championship in Thailand. Maguire beat fellow American John Catlin in a playoff to win his first Asian Tour title. At the time, he called the victory “a big weight off my shoulders” after years of trying to make his mark. Since then, Maguire has added more strong results. He finished tied for third at last year’s Hong Kong Open and also tied for third at this year’s New Zealand PGA Championship. After his disqualification, Maguire is 72nd in the Asian Tour’s Order of Merit. His best result this season is a tie for 15th at the IGPL Bharath Classic, which came in his 10 events so far.
Maguire’s disqualification became one of the unusual stories of the week, but it did not take away from an exciting finish to the tournament. Chien-Yao Hung won his first Asian Tour title in front of his home fans at Taiwan Golf and Country Club. He sealed the victory with a birdie on the 72nd hole to beat Wade Ormsby by one stroke.
It was Hung’s first win in 183 starts on the Asian Tour. The victory also moved him up to sixth in the season’s Order of Merit standings. For Maguire, the incident was a costly reminder of how strict the rules can be when it comes to lost balls. A few minutes made the difference between a promising opening round and an early exit from the $1.2 million event.
Golf has seen many players lose tournaments because of technical rules mistakes rather than poor play. Jordan Spieth was disqualified in 2024 because of an incorrect scorecard. Eddie Pepperell had a similar experience at the 2020 Qatar Masters. He corrected a scoring mistake on his card but put the correction on the wrong hole and ended up signing for an incorrect score, which wiped out his strong opening round.
PGA Tour Champions player Alex Cejka has also been disqualified eight times in his career for rules violations. Twice, the issue involved the same mistake while reading greens. There was even a mass disqualification at a 2020 mini-tour event, when 14 players were disqualified after the entire field was told to play from the wrong tee box.
None of these cases involved the same lost-ball timing issue that Maguire faced. There is also no record of Maguire having a previous rules problem in his career. Still, these examples show how strict golf’s rules can be. Even when there is no intention to gain an advantage, a rules mistake can end a player’s tournament once the required time or procedure has passed. Even a small timing issue, such as a ball being found just after the three-minute search limit, can have a big impact on a player’s tournament, no matter what their intention was.