High schooler DQ’d from U.S. Junior Amateur for unusual rules violation

The Rules of Golf have been getting a workout lately, what with the Bryson DeChambeau affair last Friday at the British Open, followed by Scottie Scheffler getting TIO relief from a ball that was never found on Sunday at Royal Birkdale.

It’s not just the professional level, however, where there’s been some drama. On Monday at the U.S. Junior Amateur, a competitor was disqualified after the opening round of stroke play when he unknowingly had been breaking a model local rule in effect for the championship regarding green-reading material.

James Nagle from Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., will be starting his senior year of high school this fall and has verbally committed to play college golf at the University of South Florida. En route to shooting a five-over 76 on the Grace Course at Pennsylvania’s Saucon Valley Country Club, Nagle used a green-reading map from his yardage book. During the round, one of his playing partners mentioned he thought the material wasn’t allowed.

“I was not informed on the fact yardage books with green maps were not permitted to use while on the putting surface,” Nagle said in his Instagram story. After talking to his playing parter, Nagle found a rules official and explained what he had been doing. “They told me to finish the round while they reviewed the situation.”

After the round, officials explained to Nagle that using the materials violated Model Local Rule G-12, which prohibits players from using green maps “to help with reading your line of play for any stroke to be made from the putting green”. The penalty for a single violation is two strokes, but for multiple violations is disqualification, which was why when he acknowledged he used it on more than one hole, he was DQ’d.

The MLR was adopted for USGA championships in 2023 as a way to maintain that reading a green “remains an essential part of the skill of putting.” It is not used in many junior or college tournaments, including AJGA events. The PGA Tour also does not use G-12, instead applying G-11, which yardage books approved by the tournament committee that restrict the amount of detail of green maps and handwritten notes.

Interestingly, while Rule G-12 does prohibit using printed materials to read your line of play on putting greens, yardage books are permitted for reading your line of play on any other stroke.