Aspiring golfer Blayne Barber disqualifies self by voluntarily admitting error

What happens when doing the right thing means your dreams have to wait?

Blayne Barber is an aspiring golfer who, in order to get on the PGA Tour, was participating in the Tour's qualifying school. At the end of the first stage, Barber was six strokes clear of the cut and well on his way.

More than a week later, he called the PGA Tour office and voluntarily disqualified himself, stating plainly that his first-stage scorecard was inaccurate.

Kudos to him for coming forward voluntarily and admitting he cheated, right? Well, not so fast. His scorecard was only one stroke off, and the error was completely unintentional.

Near the end of the stage, Barber penalized himself a stroke when he thought his club moved a leaf in a bunker. The penalty for that infraction, however, is two strokes -- a fact Barber didn't realize until much later.

Furthermore, whether the leaf moved or not is uncertain -- the caddy said he never saw anything of the sort, but Barber still applied the penalty to his card.

"I continued to pray about it and think about it, and I just did not have any peace about it," Barber told ESPN. "I knew I needed to do the right thing. I knew it was going to be disqualification."

Had Barber applied that two strokes for the leaf instead of one, he still would have been five strokes clear of the cut. Getting caught with a bad scorecard, however, gets you in the express line for disqualification.

Landon Hemsley is the Sports Content Manager for DeseretNews.com

Read more about Blayne Barber's voluntary disqualification on ESPN.