Vince India and Jake Staiano have been suspended for violating the Professional Golfers’ Association of America (PGA) Tour “Integrity Program” by placing bets. Neither of the Korn Ferry Tour golfers had wagered on tournaments they were playing.
Staiano has been suspended from PGA-sanctioned competition through December 10, 2023, while India has been suspended until March 17 2024. The PGA Tour Communications’ X (formerly Twitter) account tweeted that the Tour has “no further comment on the suspensions at this time.”
According to ESPN, Staiano has played in 17 Korn Ferry Tour events making over $30,000 in his career. India has played in 176 events after joining the tour in 2015 and has earned over $660,000 during his career with the Korn Ferry Tour.
The PGA Tour has teamed up with several sports betting operators, however, for both event promotion and retail sportsbook locations. Earlier this month, DraftKings and PGA Tour held a ribbon cutting at the TPC Scottsdale Arizona sportsbook — the first DraftKings location where a PGA Tour Tournament is held.
In August, PGA Tour unveiled its win probabilities feature on leaderboards integrating Amazon Web Services and FanDuel sportsbook at IMG Arena’s Golf Event Centre. In June, the PGA Tour also signed a three-year marketing partnership for bet365 to represent the Tour as its official sports betting operator through 2024.
Irish professional golfer, Rory McIlroy, also publicly voiced his opinion on sports betting impacting golfers’ concentration when two bettors were escorted out of the BMW Championship in Illinois after shouting at golfer Max Homa.
