Davis Riley has shown yet again that he’s an honorable steward of the game of golf. Unfortunately, the result could be getting knocked out of a PGA Tour event.
For the second time in his career, Riley called a penalty on himself in a key spot. On Saturday, it happened during the PGA Tour’s CJ Cup Byron Nelson in McKinney, Texas, when the 28-year-old realized that his distance-measuring device was set up with illegal settings.
According to a tweet from the PGA Tour communications team, Riley “was assessed a two-stroke penalty on hole No. 17 in round two of THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson for using the device with slope feature (breach of Rule 4.3). Riley self-reported the incident.”
In the third week of distance-measuring device (DMD) testing on the PGA TOUR, Davis Riley was assessed a two-stroke penalty on hole No. 17 in round two of THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson for using the device with slope feature (breach of Rule 4.3). Riley self-reported the incident.
— PGA TOUR Communications (@PGATOURComms) May 3, 2025
At the time of the penalty, Riley was teetering on the projected cutline of 4 under, but was on the right side. He subsequently dropped to 3 under, however, after posting a 66 in the opening round of the event at TPC Craig Ranch.
Riley had a similar incident at the U.S. Junior Amateur championship in 2013, when the then-16-year-old from Hattiesburg confessed to rules official Skip Giston and opponent Scottie Scheffler that his ball had rolled a bit after he addressed it while preparing to putt from just off the green on the final hole of match play.
Riley was penalized one stroke as a result. He conceded Scheffler’s short putt, putting the title of tournament champion on Scheffler by a 3 and 2 count.
Riley’s lone individual PGA Tour victory came just miles away from the site of this week’s tournament, when he captured the 2024 Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth. He also won the Zurich Classic in 2023 with teammate Nick Hardy.
Paul Skrbina of USA TODAY Sports contributed to this article.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: PGA Tour pro Davis Riley self-reports penalty on distance device
