Player DQ’d after 2 holes of Korn Ferry Tour debut for using rangefinder

One player’s Korn Ferry Tour debut was cut short because of a rangefinder.

Zach Williams, a 23-year-old recent graduate of Southern Indiana, Monday-qualified into the Memorial Health Championship in Springfield, Illinois, but after carding a pair of pars to open his first round on Thursday, Williams was disqualified for using a distance-measuring device.

Monday Q Info’s Ryan French first reported the story while a KFT representative confirmed the DQ to GolfChannel.com, noting that Williams had violated Model Local Rule G-5, which states, “During a round, a player must not obtain distance information by using an electronic distance-measuring device.” The penalty for a single infraction, as determined by Rule 4.3, is two shots, but because Williams had used his rangefinder on multiple occasions, he was disqualified.

While rangefinders aren’t allowed in PGA Tour-sanctioned tournaments and on a handful of other high-level pro tours, they are permitted in amateur golf and many professional events, including a major (PGA Championship) and Monday qualifiers such as the one Williams advanced out of this week.

Williams posted six top-10s as a senior this past season at Southern Indiana. He capped his college career with a T-8 finish at the Ohio Valley Conference Championship, and his career scoring average of 74.03 is a program record. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in computer science last spring before recently completing his Master of Business Administration degree with an emphasis in data analytics.