Marco Penge has been handed a three-month ban for betting with one month suspended, the DP World Tour has introduced.
An announcement mentioned an impartial disciplinary panel had discovered that the 26-year-old Englishman had “placed bets on multiple golf events” in a breach of the tour’s integrity programme.
It added: “Penge did not bet on himself or on the progress of tournaments during days when he was participating, leading the panel to find that the integrity of such events had not been compromised.
“The disciplinary panel dominated that Penge’s breaches merited a three-month suspension with one month suspended for a interval of 12 months pending additional breaches of the programme.
“The suspension took effect on December 13, 2024 and Penge can return to DP World Tour participation from February 13, 2025 onwards. He was also fined £2,000.
“The disciplinary panel discovered that Penge’s instant admission of breach and co-operation all through the investigation warranted mitigation mirrored within the eventual sanction imposed.”
Penge was found to have breached regulation 3(a)(i), which states: “No lined particular person shall both immediately or not directly guess or instruct every other particular person to guess on the consequence, progress, conduct or every other facet of any skilled or elite novice golf occasion wherever on the planet.”
Penge: I thought it was ok
Penge released a statement via social media explaining that he did not realise he was breaching the rules when placing bets on tournaments he was not active in.
He said: “Again in April 2024 the Tour had been knowledgeable by a betting company that I had positioned some bets on golf from 2022, with an total common stake of £24 and whole revenue of c.£250. 68 per cent of the bets I positioned had been earlier than I took the integrity programme schooling course in March 2023.
“All of my bets were positive bets (meaning betting on someone to win rather than lose) and a majority of them were in the majors and Ryder Cup. My bets were all for entertainment purposes to make watching golf more fun – just like most would do if it was something like the Grand National or other sporting events.
“From the second this got here to gentle, I absolutely cooperated with the tour all through the entire course of to make sure their investigation went as easy as potential.
“I genuinely thought it was ok to bet on golf as long as it wasn’t on myself or tournaments I was competing in. After I had found out that I had breached the rules and revisited the integrity policy at greater depth, it was only then that I realised this wasn’t the case.
“This was all a real and trustworthy mistake that I’ve taken full accountability for and I’ll by no means ever make the identical mistake once more.”
Penge confirmed he plans to return to action at the Magical Kenya Open from February 20-23, live on Sky Sports Golf.
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