Hayes played the 12th hole of the first round of the event at Deerwood Country Club in McKinney, Texas, last week, with a prototype Titleist golf ball he would later come to realise had not yet been approved by the USGA.

Then, despite knowing full well that no-one would have been any wiser and that reporting the incident would almost certainly be the end of his hopes of regaining his tour card, the one-time PGA Tour winner honoured the tradition in golf in which the players police themselves, and "turned himself in".

He reported his slip to a an official in Houston and said of his action, "He (the official) said they'd call Titleist the next day and I pretty much knew at that point I was going to be disqualified, but hey, I reckon that any other professional in my shoes would have done the same thing," the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had reported him as saying..

"Of course it's extremely disappointing," Hayes added.

"I keep thinking I'm going to wake up and this is only going to be a bad nightmare."

What happened was this:

On his 12th hole of the 1st round, his caddie reached into his golf bag and tossed a ball to Hayes who then played two shots with it - the first off the tee and the second a chip onto the green.

When he marked his ball he realized it was not the same model he had used when he started the round - which according to the rules, would earn him a two-stroke penalty.

"I realized there was a penalty and I called an official over," Hayes told the Sentinal

"He said the penalty was two shots and that I had to finish the hole with that ball and then change back to the original ball."

Hayes posted rounds of 74 and 71 in the first two rounds to put himself strongly in contention for a top 20 finish and promotion to the final qualifying stage in December.

But on Thursday night in his hotel room, Hayes suddenly realized that the errant golf ball might not have been on the USGA's approved list.

"It was a Titleist prototype, and somehow it had gotten into my bag," he recalled.

"It had been four weeks since Titleist gave me some prototype balls for testing. I have no idea how or why it was still in there."

Hayes, 43, is refusing to blame his caddie for the error, saying he should have spotted the errant ball because it did not have a model name on the seam.

"He (The caddie) kind of wanted to take some of the blame, but he should know I'm anal about my equipment and go through my bag every night. I want to know what's in there. It's almost therapeutic for me."

Hayes said that if the hole had been a par-4 or a par-5, he would have known he had the wrong ball before he struck it because he uses the label to help him align his driver on tee shots.

"But it was a par-3 and I don't use the label to line up on the shorter holes. It was my mistake. I had no choice but to take my medicine."

Hayes has won twice on the US PGA Tour, his last win coming in 2002.

He was back at Q-school, though, because after making just seven cuts in 26 events he was unable to finish the 2008 season inside the top 150 on the money list.

With more than $7 million in career earnings, however he is not with out means and still will be able to play 10 to 12 lesser tournaments in 2009 including some on sponsors' exemptions , this largely due to his status as a veteran player and past tournament winner.

"I'm looking forward to playing less and spending more time with my family. It's not the end of the world. It will be fine. It is fine," he told The Journal Sentinel.