Rory Sabbatini Was Disqualified for a Bizarre Club Head Violation That He Self-Reported

Published 11/19/2021, 3:07 PM EST

Rory Sabbatini recently had to face one of the most bizarre disqualifications on the PGA Tour. He was competing at the RSM Classic when a DQ appeared next to his name on the leaderboard after round one. Disqualifications don’t happen very often, but when they do, they come across as pretty weird.

Meanwhile, the silver medalist of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics faced disqualification after round one. However, they did not reveal the reason for the disqualification immediately. But after some time, PGA Tour Communication made a tweet and explained the situation.

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Rory Sabbatini gets disqualified for using a non-conforming club

The PGA Tour Communication made reporting the incident saying, “Sabbatini had a non-conforming external attachment to the face of a club he used during the round.” However, it was still not clear, until Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard made a tweet about the incident. He said according to Tour official he had attached a sticker to his clubface, which isn’t legal under the Rules of Golf.

Rory Sabbatini DQ from The RSM Classic due to a violation of Rule 4.1. Sabbatini had a non-conforming external attachment to the face of a club he used during the round.
— PGA TOUR Communications (@PGATOURComms) November 18, 2021

Meanwhile, stickers make the club non-conforming, as they are an external attachment. Moreover, even though this sounds bizarre, how can a sticker help or provide an advantage to a player? For the same, it was Hoggard to the rescue. He spoke to the Tour’s senior tournament director for equipment.

Rory Sabbatini has been disqualified from the RSM Classic for violating Rule 4.1, having a non-conforming external attachment to the face of his club. According to Tour official there was a sticker attached to his club face that is not allowed under the Rules of Golf.
— Rex Hoggard (@RexHoggardGC) November 18, 2021

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According to him, the sticker was not an ordinary one but a reflective sticker that players use to obtain information about their swing during practice. Moreover, Sabbatini had one of these stickers on the fairway wood that he used on the first hole itself. However, he could have avoided the disqualification if he had not used the club.

Furthermore, the equipment director said Rory self-reported the incident. Normally, self-reporting happens mostly if a player doesn’t perform well. But in this case, the Slovakian golfer had carded 68 with five birdies on the final six holes. So hopefully, Rory Sabbatini can brush it off quickly as this was not the best way to enter the offseason.

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However, this isn’t the first sticker-related disqualification. In 2017, Ben Crane received similar punishment for stickers on his driver and six-iron.

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Amey Kulkarni is a Golf writer at EssentiallySports. He is currently pursuing his Bachelor’s degree in mass media from HR College, Mumbai. Before joining EssentiallySports he used to write articles on Golf and Cricket on his personal blog cricgolf.

Rory Sabbatini Was Disqualified for a Bizarre Club Head Violation That He Self-Reported

Rory Sabbatini gets disqualified for using a non-conforming club

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