Jay Haas Is Disqualified as PGA Won’t Bend Its Rules

Jay Haas, golf’s leading money winner, was disqualified from the Players Championship when he bent his putter and then continued to play with it in Thursday’s first round.

Haas said he threw the putter at his golf bag after missing a 6-footer on the ninth hole. Haas had also missed a short putt on No. 8 and had three-putted on No. 7.

“I bent it in anger,” he said.

Haas, who has won $290,468 this year, said he was unaware that PGA rules prohibited him from using the bent putter, so he kept playing with it. Haas asked Lanny Wadkins about the putter when their group reached the 15th hole.

“He said he thought I could straighten it, so I did,” Haas said. “Then I asked an official (Ben Nelson) and he said I couldn’t use it because I changed the characteristics of the club. So I said, ‘Well, I’ve been using it.’

“(Nelson) said he’d have to get back to me. Then he told me I was disqualified.”

Haas said he blamed no one but himself for what happened.

“I was trying not to break the rules and I got disqualified for doing it anyway. It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have gotten mad and I should have known the rules. I won’t do it again. It’s a pretty expensive lesson, I guess.”

The tournament has prize money of $1.25 million, with $225,000 going to the winner.