A clerical error led to the wrong player being allowed into this week’s Korn Ferry Tour event, according to a report.
Per Ryan French aka MondayQInfo, South Africa’s MJ Daffue wasn’t supposed to have a tee time at this week’s Pinnacle Bank Championship in Omaha.
The 36-year-old, who plays on the PGA Tour as well as the developmental Korn Ferry, has been playing tournaments in recent weeks on a medical exemption.
Golfers are given a select number of starts to try and earn enough points retain their Tour cards when coming back from an injury.
Daffue had not earned enough points at the conclusion of the ISCO Championship last month but nobody noticed.
He was supposed to be one of the alternates this week, with Rayhan Thomas ahead of him in the pecking order.
Thomas, the first alternate, spent the entirety of Thursday on the range waiting for a spot to open up in the scenario another player withdrew.
That did not materialise and Thomas had to drive home.
His father had even flown over from Dubai to watch his son compete, according to French.
The mix-up was particularly frustrating for Thomas, given he is 107th in the standings and only the top 156 players at the conclusion of the regular season in two weeks’ time advance to the Korn Ferry Tour finals.
The top 20 players in the Korn Ferry Tour standings earn tickets to the big time.
Still, the 25-year-old was diplomatic when he spoke about the incident to Golf Channel.
He said the Tour were ‘regretful’ about what transpired and planned to make amends.
“The Tour is trying to find a way to rectify it, and I’m sure that we’ll come to an agreement and figure it out,” he said.
“I’m pretty confident that things will be made right. I think the Tour has good intentions.
“Obviously, they made a mistake, and they were regretful about it. Now, I’m back in Oklahoma, trying to get ready for Boise.
“In my head, regardless of MJ getting in or not, I just didn’t play good enough to get into the field, so I need to play better, and hopefully Boise will be a good chance for me to move up the rankings a little bit.”
Daffue started the Pinnacle Bank Championship in fine fashion, carding rounds of 67 and 66 to occupy a share of fourth place at the halfway stage on nine-under.
Zach James was leading Matt Atkins by one stroke on 11-under at the top of the leaderboard.