Two golfers sneak into PGA Tour event after 'clerical' error by tournament director

Outrage: Two golfers will get to play in this week's Black Desert Championship on the PGA Tour after taking advantage of a 'clerical error' by a tournament director.

A wild story has developed on the PGA Tour
A wild story has developed on the PGA Tour

Two golfers named Chris Korte and John Sand have taken full advantage of a 'clerical error' ahead of a Monday qualifier to play their way into this week's Black Desert Championship on the PGA Tour

Korte and Sand were not exempt to compete in this week's Monday qualifier for the new PGA Tour event as a result of their status. 

Only members of the PGA Tour, Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour Champions can automatically enter a Monday qualifier.

For players such as Korte and Sand, they had to compete in a pre-qualifier just to earn their spot in the Monday qualifier. 

Or so they thought.

According to Monday Q Info's Ryan French, four players were down on the Monday qualifier field sheet for the Black Desert Championship who were not exempt and had skipped the pre-qualifier, which costs thousands of dollars to enter. 

Two of the four players down on the Monday qualifier field list were Korte and Sand.

The other two guys were RJ Manke and Riley Lewis. 

When French raised this issue further, he was informed by Devin Dhelin of the Utah PGA that the quartet of players had snuck their way into the Monday qualifier for the Black Desert Championship as a result of a 'clerical error' made by their tournament director. 

"It is our first PGA Tour Monday, and he just made an error," Dhelin told French. 

"He has done hundreds of tournaments without an issue. He just missed this one."

Initially after communication with Korte, Sand, Manke and Lewis, all four players were removed from the Monday qualifier, and they were refunded their entry fees too. 

But less than 30 minutes later, the PGA Tour got in touch with their legal department and reversed the decision.

Korte, Sand, Manke and Lewis were therefore allowed to compete in the Monday qualifier for the Black Desert Championship. 

The mistake was not their fault after all. 

All four players went on to compete in the Monday qualifier and incredibly two of them earned four spots into the Black Desert Championship with Korte and Sand both shooting rounds of 8-under 64.

Korte and Sand joined two other open qualifiers in the field - Chandler Blanchet and David Bradshaw. 

But there was no such luck for Manke and Lewis who both came up short. 

Korte will tee off the 1st alongside Rafael Campos and Austin Smotherman at 11.19am ET on Thursday, while Sand will join Alexander Bjork and Joe Highsmith at 11.35am from the 10th tee. 

Can you imagine the scenes if Kante or Sand go on to win the Black Desert Championship?!

The bookies don't exactly think it will happen though with both players priced up at odds of 1000/1.

This week's Black Desert Championship is a new event on the PGA Tour this season. 

It marks the third event of the new FedEx Cup Fall

Keith Mitchell
Keith Mitchell

The tournament will feature a prize purse of $7.5m, and the winner will walk away with the top prize of $1.3m

The Black Desert Championship takes place at Black Desert Resort in Ivins, Utah. 

It's a fairly weak field by PGA Tour standards with Seamus Power, Keith Mitchell and Beau Hossler at the forefront of the betting market. 

Mitchell and Hossler will both be looking for some sort of redemption on the PGA Tour this week having both thrown away golden chances to win the Sanderson Farms Championship last week.

Hossler lost out in a playoff to Kevin Yu, while Mitchell held a two-shot lead with five holes to play. 

Keep up to speed with live scores from the Black Desert Championship here.

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