Just over a year after the one on the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour is also facing a betting scandal.
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On Wednesday, it announced that a player had violated the Integrity Programme.
Marco Penge, an English player in his first season on the DP World Tour, violated point 3 a) (i) of the Programme, having bet on a golf tournament in which he was not taking part.
Penge earned his 2024 card by winning the 2023 Rolex Challenge Tour Grand Final, and kept it for next season by the skin of his teeth, with a birdie on his final hole at the Genesis Championship in South Korea, which allowed him to make the cut and secure a place in the top 115 of the Race to Dubai.
Golf, betting
The independent jury has handed the 26-year-olda three-month ban, which will expire on February 13, 2025 (he will return to the field for the Magical Kenya Open), and a �2,000 fine.
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Penge posted a statement on his X profile about the incident:
In April this year the Tour was informed by a bookmaker that I had bet on golf from 2022 onwards
In total I bet �24 and won around �250, with 68% of the bets being placed before I took part in the Integrity Programme training course in 2023 (the document formalising the programme is from October 2022, Ed.)
My bets were all positive (in the sense that they were backed on the winner, Ed.) and the majority were on the Majors and the Ryder Cup
My bets were all for entertainment purposes, to make watching golf more fun, just as anyone would do with any other sporting event
I honestly thought I could bet on golf as long as it wasnt on myself or on tournaments in which I took part in
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It is a real and naive mistake, for which I have taken full responsibility, and it is the kind of mistake I will not make again. And this is all about this scandal, at this moment.
