Professional Golfer Admits To Cheating During Canadian Tour Event: 'This Is Not Who I Am'
Justin Doeden, a professional golfer on the Canadian Tour, admitted to cheating on Monday following the conclusion of this weekend's Ottawa Open.
An issue with Doeden's scorecard was initially noticed by Monday Q Info, a popular Twitter account that keeps up with a number of different developmental tours. Doeden withdrew from the tournament in Ottawa after tournament officials had already launched an investigation into his score.
He took to Twitter on Monday to confess his cheating during the tournament asking for forgiveness.
After shooting 3-under in Thursday's opening round, Doeden needed to at least make par on the Par 5 18th hole on Friday to make the cut. Doeden found the water with his second shot and ultimately made a double bogey seven on the closing hole putting outside the cut line.
According to Monday Q Info, the player who kept Doedens' scorecard confirmed his scores and signed it. Doeden then asked to see the card to double-check it, which is when it appears he changed his double bogey on the last hole to a par as his score posted on the leaderboard was 3-under for the tournament instead of 1-under.
Tournament operators pulled the scorecard after the error was brought to their attention by Doeden's playing partners which showed an erasure mark on the 18th hole score.
Canadian Stuart McDonald defeated Americans Devon Bling and Luke Schniederjans in a playoff to win the Ottawa Open on Sunday.
Doeden, who played collegiately at Minnesota, has played in one PGA Tour event in his career. Prior to his withdrawal in Ottawa and admission of cheating, he had missed the cut in each of his other two starts on PGA Tour Canada this season.