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Matsuyama, who earned the first of his eight PGA Tour wins at
the 2014 Memorial Tournament, was disqualified from the Jack
Nicklaus-hosted event after painted lines were discovered on the
face of his three wood.
If marked the first time the former Masters champion has been
disqualified from a PGA Tour event.
PGA Tour senior tournament director Steve Rintoul said images of
the club were posted online and his team only learned of them
after Matsuyama had used it on the first tee. Had he not used
the club, he could have kept playing.
Rintoul said his team approached Matsuyama on the second hole to
ask if he had used the club and the former Masters champion was
forthright about it.
"The material was applied to the face for alignment for Hideki
to set the ball inside the circle of the lines. That's actually
the center of the face," Rintoul told reporters.
"And applying a small, discrete dot with a Sharpie to help you
with alignment is fine. We have players who do it all the time.
But the amount of substance that was up on the face of the club,
when we sent it to the USGA, their equipment standards guys, it
was just excessive.
"And that's what could affect -- could affect -- the performance
of the ball."
Matsuyama, playing in a group alongside Rory McIlroy and Patrick
Reed, was three-over-par 39 when he reached the turn at
Muirfield Village after a double-bogey at the second hole and
bogey at the sixth.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto, editing by Ed Osmond)
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