English golfer Simon Dyson has been handed a suspended two-month ban from the European Tour and fined STG30,000 ($A55,000) following his rules violation at the BMW Masters in Shanghai in October.
Dyson attended a hearing on Thursday when he was found guilty of a serious breach of the European Tour's code of behaviour for using his ball to press down a spike mark on the green in direct line of his short par putt.
His ban will become effective only if he commits another rules breach in the next 18 months.
A disciplinary panel found that Dyson's actions were deliberate but that it was "not a premeditated act of cheating."
It also took Dyson's previous good conduct on tour into account.
A television viewer noticed the infraction, which occurred on the eighth green at Lake Malaraen during Dyson's second round, and rules officials met with Dyson the next morning.
He was tied for second, four shots off the lead. Dyson was disqualified for not adding the two-shot penalty to his scorecard.
The six-time winner on the European Tour said in a statement released five days after the incident that the violation was unintentional. The maximum sanction was expulsion from the tour.
Dyson returned to action at the start of the 2014 season in November, finishing tied for 52nd in the South African Open and then tied for third in the Alfred Dunhill Championship last weekend.
