Dyson handed suspended ban, fine for rules breach

English golfer Simon Dyson was handed a suspended two-month ban

from the European Tour and fined 30,000 pounds ($49,000) on

Thursday following his rules violation at the BMW Masters in

Shanghai in October.

Dyson attended a hearing on Thursday where he was found guilty

of a serious breach of the tour’s code of behavior for using his

ball to press down a spike mark on the green in direct line of a

short par putt.

His ban will become effective only if he commits another rules

breach in the next 18 months.

A three-man disciplinary panel, who convened at the European

Tour’s headquarters at Wentworth, found that Dyson’s actions were

deliberate and ”committed by him in the knowledge of the rule

forbidding such an act.” However, the panel said it was ”a

momentary aberration on his part, not a premeditated act of

cheating.”

Dyson’s previous good conduct on tour was also taken into an

account.

A television viewer noticed the infraction, which occurred on

the eighth green at Lake Malaraen during Dyson’s second round, and

rules officials met with Dyson the next morning.

He was tied for second, four shots off the lead. Dyson was

disqualified for not adding the two-shot penalty to his

scorecard.

Dyson, a six-time winner on the European Tour, said in a

statement released five days after the incident that the violation

was unintentional. The maximum sanction was expulsion from the

tour.

Dyson returned to action at the start of the 2014 season in

November, finishing tied for 52nd in the South African Open and

then tied for third in the Alfred Dunhill Championship last

week.