Q-School Self-DQer Qualifies For Northern Trust Open

Sean Martin reports that Blayne Barber has Monday-qualified for the Northern Trust Open after a 65 at Industry Hills.

You may recall Barber was the player who disqualified himself six days after his Q-School first round, opening the door for six more players to advance.

Besides that disqualification, his pro career had gotten off to a strong start. He made the cut in both his Web.com Tour starts last year, finishing T-33 at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Invitational and T-15 at the Winn-Dixie Jacksonville Open. He also won five times on the NGA Tour in a six-event stretch late last year.

Barber’s wife, Morgan, was on the bag for both the Monday qualifier and the previous Thursday’s pre-qualifier. He was co-medalist at the pre-qualifying after firing 66 at Morongo Golf Club.

Comments

[Jeremy]

Am I the only one who has problems with Barber waiting 6 days to DQ himself? He thought there was a problem right away but his caddie convinced him there wasn't? He should have consulted rules officials immediately after that round. From my seat it looks like he had a few days where he thought he could get away with it, then ultimately had a gut check and decided to turn himself in. And then he invokes religion as a cover (he prayed on it!!!! All better now!).

[FLGolfer]

No problem in my opinion Jeremy. Blayne is a great guy and wasn't sure about the DQ. All facts pointed to him not incurring the penalty but he wasn't certain.
He did what most would not do. He has all my respect and it has nothing to do with his religious stance or comments (I'm far from religious).

[tlavin]

I'm hoping his wife isn't on the bag at the Riv. It would be nice if he had at least one in the gallery.

[Ivan Morris]

Cut the guy some slack - if he hadn't turned himself in he wouldn't have had to go through the pain of Monday qualifying and nobody would have been any the wiser. The unfortunate delay didn't make doing 'the right thing' any easier. I hope Blayne plays well at Riviera, finishes in the top 10 and who knows another PGA Tour career may be born!

[Matt H.]

Jeremy: Boo, Hiss.

I don't care for your comment. He could have said nothing until someone brought the incident to his attention. Wasn't this a ball movement during a shot, which is common on tour?

I think that is what usually happens on the PGA and European tours, the rules official calls in the player to review video or other evidence of an incident during a round. This allows the player to "call it on himself", where a cynical person may say, the player is given the option to quit before being disqualified. Often during taping of these incidents the player doesn't seem eager to quit, in my opinion.

[3foot1]

I don't know all the facts, but I respect the guy.

[metro18]

He called a penalty on himself for touching some grass in his backswing in a bunker. Trouble was that he only penalised himself one shot instead of two. A friend told him later that night that he had signed for an incorrect score card and would be DQ'ed.
He took six days to tell the Tour what had happened.

[DTF]

I'm with you 110% Jeremy. A far more serious situation here than what is going on with Vijay.

[Tim in New Zealand]

He should have known it was a 2 stroke penalty, not a 1 stroke penalty, if he was a Bjorn-again Christian (see Ben Curtis, The Open 2003). But he did come clean, and one can only play golf well with a clean conscience.