For those of you who aren’t aware, my uncle J.P. Hayes has been on the PGA Tour since 1992 and recently failed to qualify for his 2009 PGA Tour card because he called a penalty on himself during qualifying school. To make a long story short, J.P. played a prototype Titleist ball that was not PGA approved and based on the PGA rules ,this was grounds for disqualification. As most of the media outlets proclaimed ,this could have been a very easy penalty to overlook personally because it would have been very difficult prove, as J.P. and his caddy were the only ones to see the ball. J.P. of course knew what he had to do and called the official from his hotel room that night after he realized his mistake and called a penalty on himself. I have to say his action made me extremely proud to be a member of the Hayes family. It made news for a brief couple days as a statement of what is still right in sports.
Because of his historic performance on Tour, J.P. got exemptions for a number of tournamants for the 2009 season. After a T6 finish at the Puerto Rico Open, J.P. played in a couple more tournaments but has not competed in the past three months. Fast forward to today at the Valero Texas Open, and after a 1 over start on his Thursday round, J.P. came out like a house of fire, knocking down 6 birdies and an eagle to shoot an 8 under 62 bringing him to 7 under for the tournament in a four way tie for 10th place. Hayesvision.com has done a poor job covering J.P.’s successes over the years but we will be rooting for him to finish strong this weekend in his home state. As the article on pgatour.com states, Hayes is due some good karma. Go J.P.!