Davis Riley was among the golfers who made the cut on Saturday at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, with the end of the second round getting pushed back from Friday due to inclement weather. But it was a close thing, as Riley nearly missed out on the rest of the tournament due to a self-reported penalty.

In recent weeks the PGA has begun to allow players to use rangefinders (or a "distance-measuring device") as part of an experimental rule change to use technology to increase the pace of play. But players are only allowed to use the rangefinder for raw yardage totals, rather than other settings like learning how the slope would affect distance. During his second round Riley accidentally used one of those other settings to get more information using the rangefinder than the rules allowed.

This, of course, was something only known to Riley. Yet he self-reported the violation to a rules official anyway, making for a two-shot penalty— a hefty price to pay for a golfer right up against the cut line.

Afterwards, he gave a simple and classy reason for doing so.

"I love this game," Riley said, "and that's one of the most beautiful things about this game, is the integrity all of us PGA Tour players and golfers uphold that standard to ourselves. I think it's really important to protect the field and play the game with high integrity. That was very important to me. I love this game and that's kind of something my coaches, my parents instilled in me. This is a game of integrity so play with it and act that way and when something like that happens you just have to own it up. It's part of the game, the integrity of the game."

Riley's honor was rewarded, as he eagled his final hole to finish at -5 and squeak just inside the cut line to continue into the third round of play on Saturday at the Byron Nelson.

It also wasn't the first time Riley self-reported a penalty in a tight round. The PGA Tour Communications account noted the 28-year-old did the same thing back in the 2013 U.S. Junior Amateur final, calling a one-stroke penalty on himself while lining up for a birdie putt. It ended up the difference and he lost his match to none other than Scottie Scheffler, 3 to 2.

Riley has stayed consistent over the years and his view on integrity is undoubtedly one the Tour would like every golfer to share.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Davis Riley Had Such a Classy Reason for Reporting His Own Two-Stroke Penalty.

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