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Former NCAA Champion disqualified from LPGA Q-Series after incident allegedly involving her mother

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The LPGA Tour has had its fair share of drama in recent years when it comes to rules infractions, and on Saturday at the LPGA Q-Series at Pinehurst Resort, a truly curious incident occurred, which resulted in a disqualification.

Doris Chen, the 2014 NCAA individual champion at USC, and the 2010 U.S. Girls’ Junior champion, was the player in question. She was deemed to have breached rule 15-3b after she played a ball that had gone out of bounds and then was moved back in bounds by “an outside agency.” The incident occurred on the 17th hole during Friday’s seventh round at the No. 7 course. According to reports from Golf Channel and Golfweek, it was Chen’s mother, Yuh-Guey Lin, who moved the ball back in bounds.

Speaking with GolfDigest.com on Sunday morning, Chen stated that she was unaware that the ball had been out of bounds, believing that the ball had been kicked from a bad lie to a good lie. Thinking that she was allowed to play the ball as it lies, Chen claimed that after her round she was then informed that the ball had been out of bounds.

“My caddie and I didn’t see anything happen. We were looking for the ball. I didn’t see the ball move. It was just what the homeowner said, In my mind, I thought I was just supposed to play the ball as it lied. … I realize now I should have called for a rules official to investigate.”

When asked if she had spoken to her mother after the round and whether or not it had been her that moved the ball, Chen stated that if it was indeed her, then it was an accident, before taking responsibility for the incident.

“She (Chen’s mother) told me that she didn’t and she doesn’t know. And if she did, it may be by accident and she wasn’t aware. What I would like to say is that it was a misunderstanding. It was a stressful week and not my intention for any of it to happen. I was not directly involved in any way, but I take the responsibility and accept the ruling. I was not trying to cheat and I am not a cheater.”

Regarding the decision to disqualify Chen, the LPGA released a statement clarifying just what Chen had done wrong, stating:  “Ms Chen and her caddie were made aware that the ball had been moved. Doris elected to play the ball, which was a wrong ball by definition, from its altered lie. Ms. Chen did not correct her error before teeing off on the next hole, thus resulting in the DQ penalty.”

At the time of her disqualification, Chen was placed T74 at 14-over par and six strokes out of 45th place. The top 45 finishers and ties at the end of the eight-round event earned LPGA Tour cards for 2019.

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Gianni is the Managing Editor at GolfWRX. He can be contacted at [email protected].

17 Comments

17 Comments

  1. FirstTimeReally?

    Mar 30, 2021 at 5:18 pm

    I’m pretty positive it’s not the first time her mom moved the balls. The mom may thought she was playing the secret angel. Mom, the truth is that you are destroying your daughter’s career.

  2. ck

    Nov 8, 2018 at 4:31 am

    NO child should hang his/her mom out to dry…..

    • John Hall

      Nov 8, 2018 at 10:29 am

      So cheating’s OK if it involves a member of your own family?

  3. Poulterguist

    Nov 6, 2018 at 7:58 pm

    Think she should play her future rounds with a rules official present in the group.

  4. Kevin

    Nov 6, 2018 at 1:56 pm

    I mean, how did her mum know it was her daughter’s tee shot?

  5. Steve O

    Nov 6, 2018 at 10:24 am

    I feel for Chen. She must have been mortified at what her mother did, which put her in a very difficult position. Do you protect your mother or do you call an official who would obviously discover her mother kicked the ball. Ultimately she did the wrong thing which REALLY put the focus on her mother and herself.

    • Richard Tucker

      Nov 6, 2018 at 7:26 pm

      Another case of win and succeed at all costs. Both should be banned for life I do not accept the player did not know about it she apparently told her caddie to keep quiet about it.

  6. Joe

    Nov 6, 2018 at 3:08 am

    Definitely a poor demonstration of sportsmanship and ethics. Sometimes these “tiger moms” crossed that fine line to win at all cost. What they fail to understand is that someone, somewhere is always watching. It’s a matter of time that you get caught. It might be presumptuous for me to say this, but I wonder how many times that actually happened already. And for a course home resident to have witness this, it must have been a very blatent behavior. After all, it was an OB ball, and in my opinion, they are never that easy to find. Sorry mom, you got caught and shame on you.

  7. John Hall

    Nov 6, 2018 at 12:20 am

    Tough break she got caught?? Her mother’s a cheat and should be banned from future tournaments. She is trying to exonerate her mother’s actions. “She (Chen’s mother) told me that she didn’t and she doesn’t know. And if she did, it may be by accident and she wasn’t aware.” – How can you kick a golf ball back into play by accident? I’d have a lot more respect for Ms Chen if she’d said ‘Mom did the wrong thing”

  8. JDeezy

    Nov 5, 2018 at 7:13 pm

    Her caddie has come out and said she did the wrong thing. She sounds like a cheat.

  9. B Ferguson

    Nov 5, 2018 at 12:19 pm

    Stage moms . . .

  10. John

    Nov 5, 2018 at 12:13 pm

    I don’t believe there was an intent to cheat, per we, but once told that her ball ha been moved by an outside agency, she needed to get an official to clarify her options. Obviously, what she considered proper was not. Tough break in any event.

  11. John Krug

    Nov 5, 2018 at 11:49 am

    Interview her mother.

  12. Jamie

    Nov 5, 2018 at 10:25 am

    WTF Mom? Seriously. Who does that? Oh, a Win at all cost New York locust.

  13. dixiedoc

    Nov 5, 2018 at 8:49 am

    Tiger’s ball used to do the same thing on occasion.

    • get a life

      Nov 5, 2018 at 3:28 pm

      amazeball you could pull tiger out of this. there’s nothing you tiger haters can’t do right?

  14. TRUMP 2020

    Nov 4, 2018 at 10:03 pm

    I doubt Doris knew. But her mom sure did.

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Photos from the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship

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GolfWRX is live this week at the Wells Fargo Championship as a field of the world’s best golfers descend upon Charlotte, North Carolina, hoping to tame the beast that is Quail Hollow Club in this Signature Event — only Scottie Scheffler, who is home awaiting the birth of his first child, is absent.

From the grounds at Quail Hollow, we have our usual assortment of general galleries and WITBs — including a look at left-hander Akshay Bhatia’s setup. Among the pullout albums, we have a look inside Cobra’s impressive new tour truck for you to check out. Also featured is a special look at Quail Hollow king, Rory McIlroy.

Be sure to check back throughout the week as we add more galleries.

General Albums

WITB Albums

Pullout Albums

See what GolfWRXers are saying about our Wells Fargo Championship photos in the forums.

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SuperStroke acquires Lamkin Grips

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SuperStroke announced today its purchase of 100-year-old grip maker Lamkin Grips, citing the company’s “heritage of innovation and quality.”

“It is with pride and great gratitude that we announce Lamkin, a golf club grip brand with a 100-year history of breakthrough design and trusted products, is now a part of the SuperStroke brand,” says SuperStroke CEO Dean Dingman. “We have always had the utmost respect for how the Lamkin family has put the needs and benefits of the golfer first in their grip designs. If there is a grip company that is most aligned with SuperStroke’s commitment to uncompromised research, design, and development to put the most useful performance tools in the hands of golfers, Lamkin has been that brand. It is an honor to bring Lamkin’s wealth of product innovation into the SuperStroke family.”

Elver B. Lamkin founded the company in 1925 and produced golf’s first leather grips. The company had been family-owned and operated since that point, producing a wide array of styles, such as the iconic Crossline.

According to a press release, “The acquisition of Lamkin grows and diversifies SuperStroke’s proven and popular array of grip offerings with technology grounded in providing golfers optimal feel and performance through cutting-edge design and use of materials, surface texture and shape.”

CEO Bob Lamkin will stay on as a board member and will continue to be involved with the company.

“SuperStroke has become one of the most proven, well-operated, and pioneering brands in golf grips and we could not be more confident that the Lamkin legacy, brand, and technology is in the best of hands to continue to innovate and lead under the guidance of Dean Dingman and his remarkably capable team,” Lamkin said.

Related: Check out our 2014 conversation with Bob Lamkin, here: Bob Lamkin on the wrap grip reborn, 90 years of history

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Tour Rundown: Pendrith, Otaegui, Longbella, and Dunlap soar

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Take it from a fellow who coaches high school golf in metro Toronto: there’s plenty of great golf played in the land of the maple leaf. All the greats have designed courses over the USA border: Colt, Whitman, Ross, Coore, Mackenzie, Doak, as well as the greatest of the land, Stanley Thompson. I’m partial to him, because he wore my middle name with grandeur. Enough about the architecture, because this week’s Tour Rundown begins with a newly-minted, Canadian champion on the PGA Tour. Something else that the great white north is known for, is weather. It impacted play on three of the world’s tours, forcing final-round cancellations on two of them.

It was an odd week in the golf world. The LPGA and the Korn Ferry were on a break, and only 13/15 of the rounds slated, were played. In the end, we have four champions to recognize, so let’s not delay any longer with minutiae about the game that we love. Let’s run it all down with this week’s Tour Rundown.

PGA Tour: TP takes TS at Byron’s place

The 1980s was a decade when a Canadian emergence was anticipated on the PGA Tour. It failed to materialize, but a path was carved for the next generation. Mike Weir captured the Masters in 2003, but no other countrymen joined him in his quest for PGA Tour conquest. 2024 may herald the long-awaited arrival of a Canadian squad of tour winners. Over the past few years, we’ve seen Nick Taylor break the fifty-plus year dearth of homebred champions at the Canadian Open, and players like Adam Hadwin, Corey Conners, Adam Svennson, and Mackenzie Hughes have etched their names into the PGA Tour’s annals of winners.

This week, Taylor Pendrith joined his mates with a one-shot win at TPC Craig Ranch, the home of the Byron Nelson Classic. Pendrith took a lead into the final round and, while the USA’s Jake Knapp faltered, held on for the slimmest of victories. Sweden’s Alex Noren posted six-under 65 on Sunday to move into third position, at 21-under par. Ben Kohles, a Texan, looked to break through for his first win in his home state. He took the lead from Pendrith at the 71st hole, on the strength of a second-consecutive birdie.

With victory in site, Kohles found a way to make bogey at the last, without submerging in the fronting water. His second shot was greenside, but he could not move his third to the putting surface. His fourth was five feet from par and a playoff, but his fifth failed to drop. Meanwhile, Pendrith was on the froghair in two, and calmly took two putts from 40 feet, for birdie. When Kohles missed for par, Pendrith had, at last, a PGA Tour title.

DP World Tour: China Open in Otaegui’s hands after canceled day four

It wasn’t the fourth round that was canceled in Shenzhen, but the third. Rains came on Saturday to Hidden Grace Golf Club, ensuring that momentum would cease. Sunday would instead be akin to a motorsports restart, with no sense of who might claim victory. Sebastian Soderberg, the hottest golfer on the Asian Swing, held the lead, but he would slip to a 72 on Sunday, and tie for third with Paul Waring and Joel Girrbach. Italy’s Guido Migliozzi completed play in 67 strokes on day three, moving one shot past the triumvirate, to 17-under par.

It was Spain’s Adrian Otaegui who persevered the best and played the purest. Otaegui was clean on the day, with seven birdies for 65. Even when Migliozzi ceased the lead at the 10th, Otaegui remained calm. With everything on the line, Migliozzi made bogey at the par-five 17th, as his principal competitor finished in birdie. To the Italian’s credit, he bounced back with birdie at the last, to claim solo second. The victory was Otaegui’s fifth on the DP World Tour, and first since October of 2022.

PGA Tour Americas: Quito’s rains gift title to Longbella

Across the world, superintendents and their staffs will do anything to prepare a course for play. Even after fierce, nightime rains, the Quito TG Club greeted the first four groups on Sunday. The rains worsened after 7 am, however, and the tour was forced to abort the final round of play. With scores reverting to Saturday’s numbers, Thomas Longbella’s one-shot advantage over Gunn Yang turned into a Tour Americas victory.

64 held the opening-day lead, and Longbella was not far off, with 66. Yang jumped to the top on day two, following a67 with 66. He posted 68 on day three, and anticipated a fierce, final-round duel for the title. As for Longbella, he fought off a ninth-hole bogey on Saturday with six birdies and a 17th-hole eagle. That rare bird proved to be the winning stroke, allowing Longbella to edge past Yang, and secure ultimate victory.

PGA Tour Champions: Dunlap survives Saturday stumble for win

Scott Dunlap did not finish Saturday as well as he might have liked. After beginning play near Houston with 65, Dunlap made two bogeys in his final found holes on day two, to finish at nine-under par. Hot on his heels was Joe Durant, owner of a March 2024 win on PGA Tour Champions. Just behind Durant was Stuart Appleby, perhaps vibing from his Sunday 59 at Greenbrier on this day in 2010. Neither would have a chance to track Dunlap down.

The rains that have forced emergency responders into action, to save hundreds of lives in the metro Houston area, ended hopes for a third day of play at The Woodlands. Dunlap had won once previously on Tour Champions, in 2014 in Washington state. Ten years later, Dunlap was the fortunate recipient of a canceled final round, and his two days of play were enough to earn him TC victory number two.

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