Former Masters champ Hideki Matsuyama was disqualified from the Memorial during Thursday’s opening round at Muirfield Village in Ohio. More strange was the rules violation itself — officials determined the Japanese star had too much paint on the face of his 3-wood.
“Our committee became aware through some pictures that were posted [on the internet] that there may be a substance that has been painted on the face of one of Hideki’s clubs,” rules official Steve Rintoul told reporters. “Unfortunately, when we found out about it, Hideki was playing the second hole.”
It was the first time that Matsuyama, whose first career victory on the PGA Tour came at the Memorial in 2014, was disqualified on tour.
Matsuyama, who shot a three-over 39 through his first nine holes Thursday, was informed of the disqualification before teeing off on the back nine. The paint on the club was applied as an alignment aid, according to Rintoul, with 10 small lines forming a circle on the face, but it was the amount of the substance that was deemed excessive and therefore made the club non-conforming.
Hideki Matsuyama is disqualified from the Memorial on the 10th tee box during the first round at Muirfield Village. PGA TOURUnder the rules, had Matsuyama not hit a shot with the club, he would have been allowed to continue playing. But he used the 3-wood on his opening tee shot.
“Applying a small, discrete dot with a Sharpie to help you with alignment is fine,” Rintoul said. “But the amount of substance that was up on the face of the club, when we sent it to the USGA, their equipment standards guys, it was just excessive. And that’s what could affect the performance of the ball.”
Rintoul officials made the discovery after someone sent the information to a member of the rules committee, though he declined to say who, only saying it was “another person in the golf industry.”
Hideki Matsuyama EPA“It would have come across sooner or later,” Rintoul said. “It was going to be on camera this afternoon. … The worst-case scenario, we don’t learn about this until Saturday or Sunday and who knows what ramifications are there, like with John [Rahm, who was disqualified before the final round last year after testing positive for COVID].
“It’s never a good time to disqualify a good player. But certainly getting it out of the way before it impacts the competition is the best way forward.”
