“This is something I prayed a lot about,” he says. “I continued to not find peace about it.  It just goes so much deeper than golf and my PGA Tour card and my career,” he explains. “I didn’t want there to be this little chasm in between me and God or me and this thing that I always thought would be on my conscience and weigh on me

The Background: Blayne Barber didn’t know if he moved the leaf. But his brother Shayne, who serves as Blayne’s caddy, was certain. “I was standing right there,” Shayne says. “It didn’t move.”

Rule 13-4c is professional golf’s peculiar policy that prohibits a player from touching any loose impediment in a hazard—even a single leaf—as part of the maneuver to dislodge the ball.

“Unlike a criminal conviction that requires something beyond reasonable doubt, golf’s rules only allow for two options – certainty and illegality,” says Golf Channel columnist Jason Sobel. “Which is to say, if a golfer isn’t sure whether he broke a rule, then he’s presumed guilty of breaking that rule.”

As Sobel notes, “There are no gray areas in golf’s draconian rules. Either [Barber] missed the leaf and signed for a score higher than he really had or he brushed the leaf and signed for an incorrect score, which would result in disqualification.”

After conferring with two rule officials, Barber decided not to mark a penalty on his scorecard. But three days later the incident still bothered him: Did he move the leaf or not?

Although the young golfer is getting married in December and needed the money and job security of the PGA Tour, his conscience kept bothering him.

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