[Photo: Cliff Hawkins]
A penalty that was dished out more than 24 hours later sent the Asian Tour’s Maekyung Open into chaos when a golfer who was signing autographs was removed from a playoff before it was about to begin.
According to Flushing It and reports out of Asia, the incident at the centre of the mess came during Saturday’s third round at Namseoul Country Club in Korea where Inhoi Hur hit a wayward tee shot on the par-4 seventh hole that was picked up by a spotter because it was believed to have been out-of-bounds. He hit a provisional. But many in the gallery, who were mostly in support of Hur, thought the ball was in-bounds and should not have been picked up.
A rules official came and reports were that there was a heated discussion for 30 minutes. Ultimately, the official allowed Hur to play the provisional without penalty until they made a decision. According to reports, the original ball should’ve been replaced over near the out-of-bounds line and played out. At the time, Hur signed for 69 in the third round and was outside the top 10.
Flushing It reached out to several players in the field for comment and, understandably, received heated responses.
An insane rules story happened this weekend at the Maekyung Open on the Asian Tour/KGA.
Inhoi Hur from Korea, who won the event in 2021, hit a drive yesterday on the 7th hole at Namseoul Country Club that looked OB, so he then basically abandoned the ball and went to play his… pic.twitter.com/2XeaNqFMDu
— Flushing It (@flushingitgolf) May 3, 2026
“Obviously he got a mulligan. How is that possible?” one asked.
“What kind of ruling is that?” another said. “The guy keeping his score just signed his card? It’s just an integrity situation, as the player he should know it’s a bad ruling.”
“He should be disqualified,” another player proclaimed.
The already intense situation went into complete chaos on Sunday when the 38-year-old from Korea, who won this same event five years ago, shot a seven-under 64 to tie for first and find himself in a three-way playoff against Minhyuk Song and Mingyu Cho.
Hur was signing autographs when the rules officials changed course and made the decision that Hur’s ball from the day before was out-of-bounds and he was handed a two-shot penalty. Instead of shooting 69, it was tweaked to a 71. So that meant he was yanked from the playoff and instead shared third place, two shots behind. Song topped Cho in the playoff.
In the aftermath, Hur’s wife went to social media to defend her husband.
In a message translated from Korean, she said, “I won’t accept it. Are they just brushing over the fact the competition official lied?”
