A 21-year-old pro was disqualified from the final stage of DP World Tour Qualifying School on Monday for damaging a green.
The DPWT said in a statement to Ryan French of Monday Q Info that the player, Frank Kennedy of England, was disqualified for a “serious misconduct after causing deliberate damage to the course.”
But Kennedy claimed in a statement of his own Monday evening ET that he “did not intentionally or deliberately damage the putting surface, and any comments saying otherwise are wholly incorrect.”
The incident in question occurred on the 11th green in the fourth round of the six-round qualifier in Tarragona, Spain, from which the top 15 finishers and ties will earn DPWT cards for 2027.
Kennedy, who finished his fourth round at 15 under for the week and well positioned to make the top-60-and-ties-72-hole cut, said in his statement, “On the 11th green I missed a birdie putt and tapped in. In frustration, as I was walking off the green, I swung my putter and it accidentally caught the surface. My playing partner and I repaired it straight away, and we were both satisfied it was properly fixed before we moved on. I should have called a referee to check the repair, and I’ve learned from that.”
French, citing “multiple” unnamed sources, reported Kennedy “took ‘a divot’ out of the 11th green. One player described it as ‘a one foot divot’ about 4 feet behind the hole.”
The DPWT did not respond on Monday to GOLF’s request for comment.
Kennedy’s statement continued: “I have always respected and followed the Rules of Golf. If accidental contact like this, repaired at once, is a disqualification offence, I will respect that. But it isn’t clear to me that it is, and many senior players I’ve spoken to this evening were surprised by the decision.”
Kennedy added that he has asked tour officials for clarification and a review, and said he would “respect the outcome of that review.”
French, again citing unnamed sources, also reported that Kennedy’s father, Simon, who is a sports agent and performance coach, is “looking to have the call reversed or an ‘injuction’ of some sort.”
Simon Kennedy did not immediately respond Monday to an email from GOLF.
The ruling was consequential not only for Frank Kennedy. Because his DQ moved the cutline from 12 under to 11 under, seven players, who otherwise would have missed the cut, advanced to the fifth round. Any player who completes all six rounds but finishes outside the top 15 will earn status on the DPWT’s feeder circuit, the HotelPlanner Tour.
DQs for damaging the course are rare but they have happened. In 2019, the DPWT disqualified Sergio Garcia for damaging five greens at the Saudi International. “I respect the decision of my disqualification,” Garcia said afterward in a statement. “In frustration, I damaged a couple of greens, for which I apologise for, and I have informed my fellow players it will never happen again.” (Garcia, infamously, did strike again, in the fourth round of the Masters earlier this year. After a wayward tee shot on the 4th hole, Garcia twice hammered his driver head into the ground, tearing up chunks of turf from the tee box. The tournament committee did not disqualify Garcia but did issue him a code-of-conduct warning.)
The rule that gives committees license to DQ players for behaving badly sits under “1.2 Standards of Player Conduct,” which states, among other things, that “all players are expected to play in the spirit of the game by taking good care of the course — for example, by replacing divots, smoothing bunker, repairing ball-marks, and not causing unnecessary damage to the course.”
The rule book continues: “There is no penalty under the Rules for failing to act in this way, except that the Committee may disqualify a player for acting contrary to the spirit of the game if it finds that the player has committed serious misconduct.
“‘Serious misconduct’ is player behavior that is so far removed from what is expected in golf that the most severe sanction of removing a player from the competition is justified. Penalties other than disqualification may be imposed for player misconduct only if those penalties are adopted as part of a Code of Conduct under Rule 1.2b.”
The Code of Conduct took center stage at the U.S. Open earlier this year after the USGA docked Joaquin Neimann two strokes not for damaging the course but for throwing a club.
Kennedy, who lives in Jupiter Island, Fla., had a sterling junior and late-teens amateur career both in the U.K. and U.S. but elected to bypass the college game.
“You can play college golf and with PGA Tour University you would have to play for the full five years to be relevant for that,” he told the DPWT after he turned pro in 2023. “I feel I am ready to turn pro now and get out there and start competing. I’m a 2024 graduate so I thought that would have been another 15 months until I would go to college and then potentially as much five years on top. I think that is a long time to wait.
“I thought I could go to college for a couple of years, but my game feels good and ready for the pro stage.”
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