A Scottish golfer may not appeal a three-month ban handed down by the European Tour for cheating however insists he did nothing wrong.
Elliot Saltman was accused of wrongly marking his golf ball at the M2M Russian Challenge Cup in September last year and was eventually found guilty of a "serious" regulations breach.
Legal experts have suggested him that any appeal is normally unlikely to be successful given the restricted nature of the process and his resultant inability to "proactively and fully put his case".
Consequently, the 28-year-old has decided to see out his ban and return to the course as immediately as possible, even if it means that he has to live with being labelled a cheat for the foreseeable future.
"To have people who don't know me, and who understand nothing about me, go out in the media and question my honesty is certainly really hurtful," he commented.
"To be accused of being a cheat will be a terrible stigma and, sadly, will be one that I will now almost certainly have to carry for the rest of my life. However I am a golfer and I just want to get back out there and play."
Yet, Saltman continues to protest his innocence and even took part in a lie detector test in an attempt to prove he was acting under the best of intentions.
Saltman's revocation from the tour went into effect on January 19th.
