Chinese golfer Zhang Xinjun has been hit with a six-month ban from competitive play after "signing for the wrong score" twice during the PGA Tour China Series, the China Golf Association (CGA) announced Wednesday.

Zhang was disqualified for signing for the wrong score when carding at the Lanhai Open in Shanghai in June before getting his second ­penalty for a similar incident at the Cadillac Championship in Beijing in September.

The ban, from September 15 to March 14, rules Zhang out of several year-end championships such as the WGC-HSBC Champions and PGA Tour China's Tour Championship.

But a win and three runner-up finishes in the Tour have earned him the top spot in the Order of Merit with 650,600 yuan ($106,048), about 140,000 yuan clear of second-placed David McKenzie of Australia.

Currently, the 27-year-old sits at No.417 in the world golf rankings with three other Chinese golfers ahead of him. He was in third place after Liang Wenchong and Wu Ashun, before being overtaken by 19-year-old Li Haotong earlier this month. Li clinched the Henan Open and the Nanshan Masters when Zhang did not play. The upcoming BMW Masters player list also does not include Zhang.

Some Chinese fans took aim at Zhang's professionalism.

"A professional golfer would never 'sign for wrong score' twice," a Net user said on Weibo. "If that means he was cheating, he should get a harsher penalty."

During the third round of the Cadillac Championship, China's Hu Mu filed a self-penalty for dropping his mark onto his ball, which moved the ball. Hu suffered a one-stroke penalty but earned much praise.

At the US PGA Championship in August earlier this year, American Cameron Tringale disqualified himself from the event several days after the final major of the year ended. He found himself wrongly carded and ­finally got "a clear conscience."