Adam Hadwin Takes Two-Shot Penalty Chasing PGA Tour Card

By Staff Writer

October 10, 2026

2 min read

Adam Hadwin on the course during a PGA Tour event

Bryan Berlin / CC BY-SA via Wikimedia Commons

Key takeaways

Adam Hadwin was assessed a two-stroke penalty on the par-3 second hole during the first round of the Korn Ferry Tour Championship.
The infraction was taking a full club-length of relief instead of the scorecard-length relief allowed under preferred lies.
Hadwin self-reported the penalty after seeing his playing partners take the shorter relief.
He followed an opening 70 with a second-round 67 to sit in a tie for 24th at the halfway point.
Hadwin is 54th in the season points list; the top 20 earn 2027 PGA Tour cards.

Adam Hadwin's bid to win back his PGA Tour card hit a snag Thursday when the 2017 Valspar Championship winner was assessed a two-stroke penalty during the first round of the Korn Ferry Tour Championship at The Federal Club for playing from the wrong spot.

What happened on the second hole?

Weather at The Federal Club put preferred lies into effect, letting players lift, clean and place within a scorecard's length under MLR E-3. On the par-3 second, Hadwin's tee shot came up short on the fairway, and instead of that scorecard-length relief, he moved his ball a full club length. He self-reported the error after watching his playing partners take the shorter relief, and a rules official turned his would-be par into a double bogey.

Why does the relief distance matter this year?

A local rule change at the start of the 2026 season narrowed preferred-lies relief from a full club length to a scorecard's length, aiming to stop players from gaining an outsized advantage when moving their ball. PGA Tour winner Michael Kim backed the change on social media, writing: "It will provide fairer outcomes during competition."

Scenario	36-hole score	Position
Actual (with penalty)	5-under	T24
Without the penalty	7-under	6 back of leader Blades Brown

A two-stroke penalty for picking the wrong kind of relief is the difference between Hadwin controlling his card and chasing it.

What's at stake for Hadwin's PGA Tour card?

Hadwin followed his penalized 70 with a 67 on Friday. He has made seven cuts in 13 starts on the Korn Ferry Tour this season, with a runner-up finish at the Panama Championship, and enters the Tour Championship 54th in the season-long points list. The top 20 earn PGA Tour cards for 2027; anyone who misses that cutoff can still pursue a card through PGA Tour Q-School, which runs Dec. 10-13.