‘Your heart sinks:’ Self-reported rangefinder penalty almost sent PGA Tour winner home

During the second round of the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, Davis Riley found himself toeing the line between heartbreak and happiness because of a misstep with a rangefinder.

While finishing up the second round Saturday morning at TPC Craig Ranch due to Friday’s weather delay, Riley sat at 5-under-par, which was firmly inside the projected cut line. But all of that changed when he stepped onto the 152-yard par-3 17th. 

“Stepping onto that tee on 17, I was assuming that the rangefinder was in the proper mode and shot it, and two numbers came up,” Riley said afterward. “I’ve used it enough to know that that’s the slope number. Unfortunately, it was just kind of one of those moments where your heart sinks a little bit, like you’re just throwing away two shots.”

The PGA Tour is allowing distance-measuring devices during the stretch between the Masters and the PGA Championship as a trial balloon to try and curb slow play. But the rangefinders can only be used to measure distance. All other functions, including slope, must be disabled. The ruling is clear — if slope is enabled, the player receives two penalty strokes. 

“If you have the slope adjuster on that, no matter what knowledge is on there, it’s a two-stroke penalty, and another one after that is disqualification,” Riley says.

So, Riley did what any player of integrity would do: he self-reported.

“It’s a game — it’s a gentleman’s game,” he said. “That’s just something, when you start out with that, that’s the integrity of the game knowing guys are going to keep that there. You kind of have to have that same trust as if guys, what happened to me today, have the security to say, hey, I shot this, and it was accidentally on slope.”

Suddenly, Riley found himself on the wrong side of the cut line, with seven holes left and the pressure mounting.

“I looked at my caddie, and I told him, I was like, man, I’m struggling. I’m kind of angry. My head’s spinning because I’m right around the cut and I’m playing good and I want to make a move, but then you kind of take a punch on 17,” he said.

Punch landed. But it wasn’t a knockout.

Riley responded like the seasoned pro he is and drained an eagle putt on his final hole to muscle his way back inside the cut line. 

“I saw on seven green, I saw the leaderboard, I saw it was 4-under at the time, but I know finishing on two par-5s on both sides, I knew it would probably go to 5,” he said. “So when I stepped up on nine tee, I told myself I needed to eagle. I hit a good drive just barely in the rough and then judged a 5-iron perfectly and had to putt those about two to three inches out left and hit it center cup. So I was real excited about that.”

A rules infraction, a two-shot penalty, and then an eagle to stay alive? A dramatic round, to say the least.

Riley tees off No. 10 today at 3:55 p.m. CT. If you want to catch his comeback story as it unfolds, here’s how to watch the third round of the CJ Cup.