J.P. Hayes has been on the PGA tour for a short while, and has done pretty well for himself, for sure.    He was in a qualifying tournament ("Q School"), and inadvertently played an illegal golf ball from his bag.    This ball was given to him by his caddy, he played just 1 hole with it, and frankly didn't do too well with it !

Now, let's put this into perspective - the golfers who do the best in this tournament (perhaps just the winner) automatically get their 'full-time' status on the PGA tour.     This is huge, and is the goal of about every golfer not in the Top 10 every year.     This means they qualify for the 'normal' PGA events (non-majors), without having to qualify/win other events to.

So, J.P. makes it past the 1st 2 rounds, and notices this illegal Titleist that he played for just 1 hole.     He very easily could have not said a word, and there's a very likely chance that no one would ever know what happened.     He also could have thrown the blame on his caddy, for it's the caddy's job to make sure that the players golf bag is intact and ready for each round; this includes the correct clubs (right, Ian Woosnam ?!), balls, and so on.

Instead, J.P. Hayes took the blame squarely on himself, even though the PGA has strict rules that cause suspensions.    The rules may seem harsh, but if you think about it, every sport has rules, and golf is no exception.     In fact, their rules almost need to be more specific, due to the nature of the sport and how much the sport relies on it's players to govern themselves.

So, while J.P. Hayes may not have the success on the PGA Tour this year that he would like, I would like to commend him on his choice.     Perhaps he can do other activities (public speaking to kids, talk shows, etc.) to 'get his word out' about how, in the long run, doing the right thing is generally the best thing to do......always !