She just wanted to do her daughter a favor, but the mother of a golfer who aspired to play on the American Women’s Tour, the LPGA Tour, did her a disservice because the girl was disqualified for her mother’s action. The protagonists of this story are Doris Chen and Yuh-Guey Lin. The former, 2010 U.S. junior women’s champion and 2014 NCAA champion, was participating in the Qualifying School (Q-Series) tournament in Pinehurst, North Carolina, where the finalists would earn the card to play on the LPGA Tour.
And what happened? Well, Chen, a 25-year-old Symetra Tour player, was disqualified because she played a ball out of bounds that her mother had put back in bounds by moving it with her foot. Although the young woman called the infraction a “misunderstanding,” her caddie claimed the golfer knew what she was doing.
The LPGA said in a statement that it had determined Chen knowingly played the ball that was moved by her mother on the 17th hole during the seventh round of the Q-Series. The next day, Chen posted her side of the story via screenshots of a large paragraph she wrote on her phone.
This is part of his explanation of what happened: “I had no direct involvement, nor did I intend for it to happen. It was a stressful week and I did my best to resolve the situation at the time. Unfortunately, I misjudged the situation at the time and that resulted in the wrong decision. It was my responsibility as a player to call a rules official at the time to decide on the matter. However, I thought I knew the rules perfectly well. I have to make it emphatically clear that my caddie, the volunteer and I at the time we were looking for the ball did not see anything suspicious. I did not hear or see anything, nor did I do anything to interfere. I found the ball and hit it.”
Speaking to Golf Channel, Chen said he was looking for his drive ball on the 17th when a spectator said he found it among some pine needles near a tree. The spectator commented that a woman who owned a nearby house came out and said someone had moved the ball. Chen said he thought it would be okay to play it where it was because he could not determine if the movement had been intentional.
Chen said he did not know if the lady accurately saw what happened because the house was below a small slope where the ball was found. Chen added that he decided to play it because he believed that even if the ball had been moved it was still “a live ball” and should be played where it was. She also said she remembered seeing on television years ago something similar when a spectator moved Tiger Woods’ ball and he was instructed to play it where it was.
The young golfer recounted that her mother was following her that day, but she was further down the 17th hole and not where the incident occurred. “My mother said she didn’t move the ball. She doesn’t know what happened.”
“Apparently, the landlady told the LPGA later that the ball moved from out-of-bounds to in-bounds,” Chen claimed. “I swear to God that’s not what she told me. My caddie was a witness. He heard it.”
Valer, the caddie, did not endorse that and said he was frustrated that Chen gave a false version of what happened. Valer told Golf Channel that Chen knew it was not a random bystander who moved the ball, but his mother, and that he warned her that playing it without consulting a rules official could be disqualified.
The caddie said that, as they searched for the ball, it was Chen’s mother who announced that she discovered where it was. That’s when a woman ran out of a nearby house, assured them that the ball was moved by a spectator and pointed directly to Chen’s mother.
Valer asked Chen to call a rules official because otherwise she risked being disqualified, but the girl refused and continued playing.
Leave a Reply