Golf-Dyson handed suspended two month ban
* Dyson handed two month ban, suspended for 18 months * Also fined 30,000 pounds * Player's previous unblemished record considered (Adds detail) LONDON, Dec 5 (Reuters) - England's Simon Dyson has been given a suspended two month ban from competing on the European Tour after being found guilty of cheating at a tournament in China in October. The Tour's disciplinary panel said in a statement on Thursday that it had suspended the ban for 18 months because the act was not premeditated and the player had a previously unblemished record. The 35-year-old, who was disqualified from the Oct. 24-27 BMW Masters in Shanghai for fixing a spike mark on the line of a putt, was also fined 30,000 pounds ($49,000) and ordered to pay 7,500 pounds costs. The panel said that "if during that 18 month period, Mr Dyson commits any breach of the Rules of Golf, his case will be referred back to the Panel to determine whether in the circumstances the suspension should immediately become effective. "If, however, at the end of that period, he has committed no such breach, then the threat of a suspension will fall away." Dyson released a statement after the event vehemently denying that he deliberately cheated, saying he made an "accidental mistake". The panel ruled that Dyson's action was a deliberate one, committed to improve his position on the green, and might warrant an immediate suspension. However, it took into consideration the fact that Dyson had no history of misconduct in 14 years on the Tour and his action "involved a momentary aberration on his part, not a premeditated act of cheating". Dyson has won six times on the tour, most recently in 2011 when he lifted the Irish Open and Dutch Open titles. The Englishman comes from a sporting background. His grandfather was a jockey, his dad John is a bookmaker and his uncle Terry played in the Tottenham Hotspur football team that won the First Division and FA Cup double in 1961. ($1 = 0.6127 British pounds) (Writing by Tony Jimenez; editing by Alan Baldwin)
