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Eddie Pepperell certainly knows how to make a disqualification interesting.
The 29-year-old Englishman was DQ’d from the European Tour’s Qatar Masters on Thursday and this time, it wasn’t because he ran out of golf balls.
Pepperell was disqualified after the first round because he signed an incorrect scorecard. But it wasn’t that simple.
Pepperell explained the mishap on Twitter, writing his score of 71 was correct, but his partner put down a 5 on the par-4 11, when Pepperell actually double-bogeyed the hole. He said his partner also marked a 3 on the par-4 16, opposed to a 4.
Pepperell said he changed both errors, but made another mistake in the process. He accidentally changed the score on the par-4 17th, which he birdied, instead of the 16th.
MORE: Leaderboard at Qatar Masters
“Quite disappointing as I actually took the time to change the original error, only to make a costlier one myself,” Pepperell wrote. “I asked the referee if this had any bearing on my disqualification but it didn’t.
“The rules are the rules and I 100% accept that, but I can’t help feeling that this particular way of disqualification is a fair distance away from common sense, and that’s also disappointing. I enjoyed the course however and hopefully next time I’ll do a better job.”
I picked him up on it and I changed the card to reflect the fact I actually made a 6 on hole 11 as opposed to a 5, and a 3 on hole 16 as opposed to a 4. I then however mistakenly changed the 17th hole(🤷🏼♂️🙈), not the 16th hole on my scorecard, and handed it in…
— Eddie Pepperell (@PepperellEddie) March 5, 2020
The rules are the rules and I 100% accept that, but I can’t help feeling that this particular way of disqualification is a fair distance away from common sense, and that’s also disappointing. I enjoyed the course however and hopefully next time I’ll do a better job 👍
— Eddie Pepperell (@PepperellEddie) March 5, 2020
Pepperell’s score of even-par 71 would have given him a share of 61st headed into the event’s second round.
This isn’t the first weird disqualification Pepperell has experienced. During last season’s Turkish Airlines Open, Pepperell was disqualified during the final round for running out of golf balls after the contents of his ball pocket spilled out into a pond beside the fourth green.
Nicolai Højgaard holds the first-round lead at the Qatar Masters by one shot at 7 under. Joost Uiten sits in second ahead of a six-way tie for third at 5 under.
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