Jason Millard has disqualified himself from the U.S. Open after only five days of qualifying.
Jason Millard, a young 24-year-old American golfer who had been looking for a stroke of luck to change his life, had the chance to compete in a Major.
He played in the US Open qualifier at Colonial Country Club in Memphis and qualified with two rounds of 68. However, five days later, bags packed and already on his way to Pinehurst, he decided to call the USGA to report a penalty that occurred in qualification.
Millard has passed into history. He case will be analyzed whenever we talk of ethics in sport. The incident occurred on the 18th hole of the North Colonial tour, when he had nine holes left to play. His ball landed in the bunker and during the preparation he felt something. “I can not say for sure because everything happened so fast, but I got the feeling that the club could have touched the sand just before I started the swing,” says Millard.
It was a hard, tense, cruel time. He looked at his shot, the bunker, the ball, and then looked up to the sky. He was trying to find an answer, but there was none. He asked his companion, the experienced Tommy Gainey, who said he had seen nothing. He also called an arbitrator – who was unable to help. ¨It’s something you have to decide yourself, you are the only one who can know, he said. “I wish there had been a TV camera there to know for sure,” he added.
Millard thought about it for a while. If your club had touched the sand then there should be a two-stroke penalty. But he wasn´t sure, it was impossible to know for sure. He finally decided to go ahead without the penalty, and shot 68 – thus qualifying for the U.S. Open.
When he had the ticket to Pinehurst in his pocket, he began to feel a sickening feeling in his stomach. “I could not think of anything else, every minute, every second, it was terrible. I was eating-up inside. I could not say if it happened or not”, he explains.
On Saturday, Millard packed up, loaded the car, picked up his caddy and made their way to North Carolina. However, halfway there his conscience got the better of him and he could not take it anymore. He stopped and called the USGA. “I’m not one hundred percent sure, but it could´ve happened. When in doubt, I prefer not to go through with it,” he told the officials.
Millard’s story is even more impressive if his life is known. Just a year ago his father died of leukaemia. He was then left to care for his mother who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis since he was a child.
She is unable to walk and Millard lives with her and is responsible for all. She has a nurse, but he does the shopping, pays the bills and looks after her.
All this has happened in such a key moment in his golfing career where he has recently graduated from Middle Tennessee State University. He tried Web.com Tour School, but his card remains with conditional status, and so far, has not been allowed to play a single tournament.
Millard needed a stroke of fortune and it seemed that it had finally come until five days later it was shattered. He told his mother. “She told me that she was very proud of me and of my decision. I’m shattered, but I would not have been able to live with the doubt,” he said.
His self-disqualification has opened the door for US amateur Sam Love, who shot 68 and 69 in Memphis. One dream is broken, another begins…
Traducción por Jonathan Ballantine English & Golf
