During the final round of The Sentry on Sunday, Will Zalatoris and Cam Davis made a crucial mistake which ultimately cost them both two strokes and a significant chunk of their would-be prize money.
Though neither were in contention for the title - such was the dominance exhibited by champion, Hideki Matsuyama during his record-breaking victory - Davis was on track to secure a top-five while Zalatoris, who revealed he had added 15 pounds of muscle over the winter, was eyeing up a potential top-10.
That was until the pair reached the 551-yard, par-5 15th hole at Kapalua Resort's Plantation Course. Following two good shots which left them both with short looks into the green (48 yards for Davis and 37 yards for Zalatoris), they unintentionally went on to hit each other's golf balls - despite the two locations being noticeably different.
Upon reaching the green, the pair noticed the error and went back to what should have been the spot for their third shot before continuing from the correct place.
Unfortunately for Davis and Zalatoris, their mistakes saw them incur a two-stroke penalty and left them both with no chance of making birdie. It could have been worse, though, as they would both have been disqualified if they had teed off on 16 prior to noticing.
Wrongly playing each other's golf balls costs these golfers £342K! 😲⛳ pic.twitter.com/qV9Sjwo1QdJanuary 6, 2025
As it was, the pair walked off with a bogey apiece as the onlooking Golf Channel broadcast team reacted to what had just happened.
Analyst Mark Rolfing said: “It’s going to be expensive... Wow, what a pair of mistakes there," to which lead commentator Dan Hicks replied: “especially with the money involved here and the FedEx Cup points. It’s just frustrating, disappointing, everything above.”
Rolfing continued: “Almost doesn’t seem possible in today’s game. You cannot play your own ball.” Hicks capped off the moment by saying: “Losing a little bit of focus, right? Just kind of get careless.”
In the end, Davis finished T13th instead of T5th after a closing 69 and collected $410,000 in the opening Signature Event of the 2025 PGA Tour season while Zalatoris ended T26th instead of T15th thanks to a level-par 73 and earned $163,333.33.
Couple golf ball changes for Will Zalatoris and Ludvig Aberg who both switched to @Titleist’s ‘25 Pro V1x at Kapalua. pic.twitter.com/8UuYbnJOKyJanuary 3, 2025
The Australian missed out on $283,200 as a result of his mistake, and his American peer - who had only switched from the 2024 to the 2025 version of Titleist's Pro V1X this week - failed to bank $119,866.67 due to his own error - a collective loss of $426,491.67.
Neither player spoke to the media after their final rounds. Davis is due to return to action at the Sony Open this week, but Zalatoris is not in the field for the second Hawaiian event of 2025.
