What rule did Will Zalatoris and Cam Davis break at The Sentry 2025? All you need to know 

Cam Davis and Will Zalatoris were the protagonists of a strange situation during the latest edition of The Sentry. Both players received two-stroke penalties for a rule violation during the same play.

Both players were penalized for playing the wrong ball. The unusual fact is that both players committed the rule infraction at almost the same time, while playing the second shot of the par-5 15th hole during the final round of The Sentry.

Rule 6.3C of the Rules of Golf, established by the United States Golf Association (USGA) and the R&A, prohibits playing a wrong ball, which is defined as "any ball other than the player's". The classic example of a wrong ball is playing another player's ball, which is exactly what happened in the case of Will Zalatoris and Cam Davis at The Sentry.

Rule 6.3C(1) establishes three different penalties for this type of situation, depending on four different scenarios:

• In match play, the offender loses the hole.
• In match play, if both players played the wrong ball, the first player to do so loses the hole. If it cannot be determined which player was first, there is no penalty and play continues to the end of the hole.
• In stroke play, the player receives two penalty strokes if he corrects the error (as happened in The Sentry).
• If the player does not correct the error before starting the next hole (in stroke play), or before returning the scorecard if the infraction occurred on the final hole, the player is disqualified.

To avoid this type of situation, Rule 7.3 provides an exception in which the ball may be lifted from where it lies in order to properly identify it. To do this, the player must properly mark the place where the ball came to rest.

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How did Will Zalatoris and Cam Davis finish at The Sentry 2025?

The two penalty strokes received during the final round of The Sentry had a direct impact on Will Zalatoris and Cam Davis' final results. The Australian would have finished in the top 5 of the tournament, while Zalatoris would have tied for 15th.

The final result for Davis was a tie for 13th place with a score of 22 under. This performance earned him a $410,000 payout, approximately $330,000 less than he would have won had he not received the penalty.

In Zalatoris' case, he finished in a tie for 26th place for a prize of $163,333, about $130,000 less than he would have earned had he finished in a tie for 15th place.

Cam Davis bounced back from a poor first round (even par) with two consecutive rounds of 9-under on Friday and Saturday. His final round score was 4 under.

Zalatoris, on the other hand, had excellent performances in rounds one and three (8 under each), but did not fare as well in rounds two (3 under) and four (even par).