England golfer Simon Dyson was handed a suspended two-month ban from the European Tour and fined £30,000 ($US 49,000) following his rules violation on the eighth green during the second round of the BMW Masters in Shanghai.

Dyson attended a ‘Disciplinary Panel’ hearing on Thursday where he was found guilty of a serious breach of the tour’s code of behavior for using his ball to press down a spike mark on the green in direct line of a short par putt.

His ban will become effective only if he commits another rules breach in the next 18 months.

A three-man panel, who convened at the European Tour’s headquarters at Wentworth, found that Dyson’s actions were deliberate and “committed by him in the knowledge of the rule forbidding such an act.” However, the panel said it was “a momentary aberration on his part, not a premeditated act of cheating.”

Dyson’s previous good conduct on tour was also taken into an account.

A television viewer noticed the infraction on the Lake Malaren course during Dyson’s second round and then emailed the Tour.  However it was not to around 8am local time the next morning that European Tour Chief Referee, John Paramor met with Dyson.

The York-born golfer left the course immediately and also withdrew from the Turkish Airlines Open.

Dyson was tied in second place at the time and four shots off the lead.

He was disqualified for not adding the two-shot penalty to his scorecard.

Dyson, a six-time winner on the European Tour, said in a statement released five days after the incident that the violation was unintentional. The maximum sanction was expulsion from the tour.

Dyson returned to action at the start of the 2014 season in November, finishing tied for 52nd in the South African Open and then tied for third in the Alfred Dunhill Championship last week.