England’s Simon Dyson returns to action this week for the first time since being handed a two-month ban from the European Tour, certain that he has learnt his lesson from what he described as “the worst moment of my career”.
Dyson was disqualified from last October’s BMW after the second round when in tied second place for signing a wrong scorecard.
On the eighth hole of the second round in Lake Malaren, he used a ball to flatten a spike mark in the line of his putt after marking his ball.
The European Tour charged the 36-year-old with a serious breach of the Tour’s code of behaviour, which was upheld by a disciplinary panel in December.
Dyson was given a two-month ban, a suspended sentence for 18 months, and fined £30,000 (Dh180,000).
Dyson said: “I don’t think it can get any worse really.
“But these last few months also made me realise how much I do love the game. I fell out of love with the game the last couple of years a little bit and it’s just nice to be back and playing and be amongst everyone again.
“What’s in the past is in the past and I can’t do anything about it.That’s the way I have looked at it since the day of the hearing really. As soon as it was over, it was over.
Me and my wife back home haven’t spoken about it. I can just get on with it and am looking forward to starting afresh now.
“I’ve never done it in the past and I’ll never do it in the future. There was no intent whatsoever to try get an advantage. I’m just going to be very careful from now on, make sure I’m on the ball and be very professional about everything I do.”
Before the hearing Dyson played in a couple of events in South Africa, and even finished tied third in the Alfred Dunhill Champion-ship.
“I went down for the two tournaments in South Africa and just absolutely loved being back out and getting amongst it again,” added Dyson.
“There was a good chance that it might have been taken away from me for a couple of months, if the panel had seen it differently.
“It made me realise I love doing what I do. I’m probably as focused as I’ve ever been and I’ll get my head down and try to get back in that top 50 again.”
When asked how the reaction of his fellow professionals been so far, Dyson said: “It’s been great. I can’t say enough about them really.
“Nobody has said anything. Everyone has been coming up and talking to me.”
Former world number one Luke Donald, a close friend of Dyson, said: “The vibe and body language I got from him was that he feels very bad about what happened and wants to make up for it and hopefully he can put this behind him.”
