England’s Simon Dyson is face a Tour disciplinary panel over his China cheating charge.
The European Tour today issued a statement confirming Dyson has a case to answer and, if found guilty, he could be staring at a three or four month suspension from the Tour over an incident during the second round of last week’s BMW Masters at Lake Malaren in Shanghai.
The six-time Tour winner was viewed taping down a spike mark on the eighth green just seconds are marking his ball.
European Tour Chief Referee, John Paramor celebrating Halloween.
However it seems that Dyson has an alleged history of rule offences and hence the need to appear before the panel despite being disqualified from the BMW Masters.
In previous cases when there has been a serious breach in rules, such the Elliott Saltman case of some years ago, the matter was handled by the Tournament Players Committee.
However Committee chairman, Thomas Bjorn revealed today after posting a two over par 74, that the passionate nature of dealing with the matter by fellow Tour players did not seem appropriate.
Instead such matters are conducted by a Tour ‘panel’ including Chief Referee, John Paramor.
Dyson is not competing this week in Shanghai but is still entered in next week’s inaugural Turkish Airlines Open but it would seem now that he will withdraw to avoid any further embarrassment.
The Tour’s statement reads:
Friday October 25, 2013, Simon Dyson was disqualified from the BMW Masters presented by SRE Group at Lake Malaren Golf Club in Shanghai, China.
Under the Rules of Golf he was found to have breached Rule 16-1a, which states that a player must not touch his line of putt. He subsequently failed to add a two-shot penalty to his score when signing his card, and as a result was disqualified under Rule 6-6d. Television viewers had alerted The European Tour to the incident, which took place on the eighth green during the second round.
At the conclusion of the tournament, and having reviewed subsequent reports from Tournament Director Mikael Eriksson and Chief Referee John Paramor, it was decided by David Garland, Director of Tour Operations for The European Tour, that further action was required under The European Tour’s Code of Behaviour and Disciplinary Procedure, which states:
“3. Serious Breach. If, at the conclusion of an investigation into an alleged breach of the Code by a Member, it is evident that a serious breach of the Code may have occurred, then a disciplinary hearing shall take place before an independent disciplinary panel.”
Under The European Tour regulations, the three person panel will comprise an independent lawyer, an ex-Member of the European Tour or current player on the European Senior Tour and an experienced sports administrator. The player in question will then be asked to appear before the Disciplinary Panel at a hearing that will be convened on at least 21 days’ notice to the player.
If, following the hearing, the panel decides that a breach of the Code has been established, it shall impose a sanction that it considers appropriate having regard to the circumstances. Such sanctions may range from a reprimand, a censure, a fine, a suspension of Membership, a suspension from participation in one or more tournaments or for a given period, or expulsion from The European Tour, or otherwise as the panel shall determine.
