Simon Dyson could be expelled from the European Tour for rules violation at BMW Masters

If you break a rule on the PGA Tour, you risk getting called out by a golf personality, but on the European Tour, it could mean never playing one of their events again.

That is the case with Simon Dyson, the 35-year-old Englishman who was disqualified last week at the BMW Masters for tapping down a spike mark with his golf ball after marking it, a clear violation of rule 16-1a.

Dyson was near the lead at the time of the incident, but missing out on that big check could end up being crumbs compared to what the European Tour could do to the six-time winner on the tour.

Officials said on Thursday that Dyson could be expelled from the European Tour if the committee deems his actions a breach of the behavioral code set by the tour.

“If, following the hearing, the panel decides that a breach of the code (of behavior) has been established, it shall impose a sanction that it considers appropriate having regard to the circumstances,” the tour said in a statement.

“Such sanctions may range from a reprimand, a censure, a fine, a suspension of Membership, a suspension from participation in one or more tournaments or for a given period, or expulsion from The European Tour, or otherwise as the panel shall determine.”

As you can see in the video right here, Dyson obviously tapped down a spike mark with his ball in a quick motion after marking it, something that everyone can agree was a violation of the rules, but expelling a guy from a tour for this seems a little drastic considering he doesn’t have a history of being a guy that breaks the rules of golf.

Dyson released a statement himself, saying he knows what he did was against the rules but that he didn’t “deliberately” break the rules and doesn’t have a history of being a guy that does things like this. Dyson did say that after watching the video he believed that a disqualification was necessary, but he doesn’t see this as an issue that should be taken any further.

“My action was in no way a deliberate act with the intention of breaking the rules. It was simply an accidental mistake.”

As we’ve said hundreds of times on this website, the rules of golf are a fickle beast. Sometimes it’s up to interpretation, sometimes it’s crystal clear, and sometimes you could go either way on the issue, but I don’t see Dyson actually landing an expulsion for this issue.

Fine him, suspend him an event or two, but don’t make an example out of a guy that broke a rule and admitted to messing up.

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Shane Bacon is the editor of Devil Ball Golf and Busted Racquet on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shanebaconblogs@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter at @ShaneBacon!