DUBLIN, Ohio -- Ryan Moore's rookie season on the PGA TOUR has thus far been as short and ugly as the new scar he sports just above the heel of his left hand.

“Doesn’t that look good?” Moore asks after turning his palm skyward to reveal the incision that has cut into his first full season as a professional golfer.

Honestly? No, it doesn’t look good. But a scar holds promise, if only because it suggests that whoever is sporting it might be inclined to believe that his problems are in the past. Of course, Moore might as well change his name to Murphy for all the little twists and turns he’s had to navigate in 2006.

He swerved clear of the latest pothole Saturday morning at the Memorial Tournament, and he didn’t even have to hit a golf shot. Moore arrived at Muirfield Village Golf Club at 6:30 a.m. ET to state his case for continuing on in his eighth tournament of the season.

Moore and playing partner Justin Rose were disqualified late Friday after 11 holes. Their transgression was leaving the field of competition before play in the weather-plagued second round was officially suspended by darkness. What occurred was an honest mistake -- the kind golfers usually make -- when they were informed by a volunteer scorer that they needn’t play further.

What they should have been told was that the horn suspending play was coming in the next five minutes after which they could stop or finish the hole they’re on.

Whoops. DQ. Moore, who returned to competition at the Bank of America Colonial after undergoing surgery in March for his injured left hand, admits he isn’t an emotional sort, but he was steaming Friday night.

“I was thinking, how did this happen? And what else could possibly happen to me? I was not happy to say the least,” said Moore, 23, of Las Vegas.

Fortunately, he and Rose had a chance to plead their case to the rules officials. That chance came Saturday morning, and the two men must have been persuasive because after 15 minutes their disqualifications were rescinded because they had received wrong information on the course.

Rose took advantage to finish off a 1-under-71 with birdies on three of his last four holes, and then shot a 5-under 67 Saturday afternoon. Moore also shot a 71, but his rustiness slowed him down later in the day as he came home in 74 and he is at even-par 216 with a round to play.

At least he was still playing. After having to withdraw last week from the FedEx St. Jude Classic because his hand was still week, a disqualification at the Memorial Tournament would have been even harder to swallow, especially when he’s trying to find his rhythm in time for Monday’s U.S. Open qualifier. Moore badly wants to earn a berth in the 106th Open at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, N.Y., where two years ago he won the U.S. Amateur.

Ryan Moore was a four-time All-American at UNLV. (Feldman/WireImage)

“I didn’t finish the way I wanted to (in the afternoon), but I’m starting to play a little better,” Moore said. “I only have 7-8 rounds under my belt since I got back. I need to play. Just having a chance to get back out there meant a lot to me. I would have completely understood if they had ruled against us, but I feel fortunate that I am still out there.”

The first player since Tiger Woods to use exemptions to earn his PGA TOUR card, Moore admits that his whole season has been an emotional roller coaster, one that took a giant dip Friday only to catch another upswing Saturday. It’s not the kind of year he envisioned for himself after earning $686,250 (the equivalent of 113th on the 2005 money list) in just 12 events, highlighted by a tie for second at the Bell Canadian Open.

But maybe the second life he received Saturday at the Memorial Tournament is a sign of better things to come.

“I hope it is,” he said. “I think at the end of the day everything made sense, somehow. I don’t know how it happened, but it did.”

Well, that’s golf. It can cut you to the quick but the scars can only make you stronger.