Sam Ryder has admitted that inadvertently cheating was the reason behind his withdrawal from a Monday qualifier for the Valspar Championship. The former top-100-ranked player fell foul of a recent amendment to the preferred lies, also known as ‘lift, clean and place’ or ‘winter rules’.

The PGA Tour reduced the relief area for placing a ball from a club-length to the length of a scorecard. Its purpose is to avoid extreme mud, poor fairway conditions or temporary water. Exceeding the area by mistake can be corrected without penalty before playing the next stroke; however, Ryder did not realise in time.

He has now opened up about what happened to him on the ‘Any Given Monday’ podcast. “I was embarrassed to say,” Ryder said with a laugh, “but last week I did the Monday in Brooksville, and I withdrew because I unintentionally cheated.

“It was lift, clean and place, and they changed the rule this year, which I knew; it was totally my fault. But I hadn’t played lift, clean, and place under the new rule yet.

“We played nine holes, and I was three under, and I was cruising along. I think six under got through; I was playing fine.”

Ryder added: “I realised I had not been doing the scorecard length; it didn’t really gain anything for me, but I definitely knew there were a couple of situations where [it happened], so I withdrew. I was bummed about that, [but] it ended up working out; I got in.”

As he suggests, he secured his place in the field as an alternate following Akshay Bhatia’s withdrawal from the tournament. Ryder also managed to make the cut and concluded in a tie for 64th at two over par, notably a stroke ahead of both Billy Horschel and Rasmus Hojgaard.

He has also qualified for the Houston Open after carding a 12-under 60 for the lowest round of the Monday qualifier by three strokes to claim medalist honours. Ryder accomplished the achievement without a caddie, using a push cart to transport his bag.

Competing without a caddie remains highly unusual, particularly for an eight-year tour professional. Ryder, however, lost his card last year after placing 108th in the FedEx Cup standings, as only the top 100 are exempt from all full-field events.

He fell just 37 points short of Taylor Moore in 100th place, becoming one of the first players to suffer from the PGA Tour’s decision to lower the cutoff from 125. Ryder finished 125th in 2024, a year after his career-best 61st finish.