From hero to zero: Padraig Harrington disqualified in Abu Dhabi after ball probe on seventh green

Add to My Stories Padraig Harrington has been sensationally disaqualified from the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.In second place after a seven under par opening 65, the three-time major winner was the subject of an investigation into whether his ball moved on the seventh green on the opening day.The three-time major winner, one off the lead overnight, did not tee off in the second round after being called to review an incident in his opening 65.
On the seventh green Harrington's hand brushed the back of his ball as he replaced it in front of his marker.

Nightmare: Padraig Harrington has been thrown out of this year's Abu Dhabi eventThe ball rocked forward and although the Dubliner thought at the time that it then returned to his original position, television slow-motion showed that it did not go all the way back.Under golf's very strict rules Harrington could not simply accept a penalty shot if it went against himbecause he had signed his card.A viewer brought the matter to the attention of the European Tour after Harrington had signed his scorecardand because of that the punishment was disqualification rather than a two-shot penalty.Harrington was disqualified after a 30-minute review of the incident with European Tour senior referee Andy McFee.Harrington said: 'I was aware I hit the ball picking up my coin. I looked down at the time and was pretty sure it had just oscillated and had not moved, so I continued on.'In slow motion it's pretty clear the ball has moved three dimples forward and it's come back maybe a dimple and a half. It the end of the day that's good enough, but I wouldn't have done anything differently yesterday - there was nothing I could do about it at that moment in time.

Over and out: Harrington insist he wouldn't have acted any differently if it h! appened again'If I'd called a referee over it would have been pointless because if he'd asked me where my ball was I'd have said it was there. As far as I was concerned it didn't move.'It brought back memories of the 2000 Benson and Hedges International at The Belfry. The Dubliner was five ahead with a round to go there, but then it was discovered he had not signed his opening day scorecard and he was disqualified.Tour senior referee Andy McFee, who also disqualified Harrington 11 years ago, said: 'I got an email from the Tour feedback site just before six o'clock. I managed to get a look and knew immediately we had an issue. I got all members of the rules committee to look at the tape.'Because everything was closing down I decided to sleep on it and speak to Padraig first thing this morning. It's a minute movement, but it's a movement and he never replaced it, so he should have included a two-stroke penalty.'The fact that he is unaware he moved the ball unfortunately does not help him. Because he signed for a score lower than actually taken the penalty is disqualification.'

More...

  • Starting from scratch! Harrington's new swing is a real jaw-dropper
  • Scot Saltman is cut by European Tour for three months over 'cheat' storm


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ICC appoints umpires and match referees for Cricket World Cup

THE APEX body of cricket, International Cricket Council (ICC) has appointed umpires and match referees for the group stage of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, which is going to be held between February 19 to April 2 in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The International Cricket Council has appointed Aleem Dar, who was ICC Umpire of the years 2009 and 2010, four-time ICC Umpire of the Year Simon Taufel along with Ian Gould, Billy Doctrove, Daryl Harper, Steve Davis, Marais Erasmus, Tony Hill, Asoka de Silva, Rod Tucker, Richard Kettleborough, Nigel Llong, Kumar Dharmasena, Bruce Oxenford, Asad Rauf, Amish Saheba and Shahvir Tarapore. ICC also appointed Ranjan Madugalle, Chris Broad, Jeff Crowe, Roshan Mahanama and Andy Pycroft as match referees for ICC Cricket World Cup 2011. Here is the full list of umpires and match referees for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 until group stage. Saturday 19 Feb Bangladesh vs India (D/N), Dhaka- Steve Davis and Kumar Dharmasena, Billy Do...
Keep reading

Ki celebration 'prompted by Scottish abuse'

DOHA: South Korea midfielder Ki Sung-Yueng's controversial 'monkey' celebration against Japan was a response to racist abuse from Scottish football fans, a team official said on Thursday. The 21-year-old Celtic midfielder put the Koreans 1-0 up from the penalty spot in the 23rd minute of Tuesday's semifinal, before allegedly pulling a monkey face and scratching his cheek in front of a pitch-side camera. His celebration caused offence in sections of the Japanese media, who said the act was a racial slur on their country, but South Korea media officer Park Il-Ki said it was a reference to monkey chants from Scottish fans. "It was about the unsporting treatment he got in the Scottish league, especially in away games," Park said. "People made noises and monkey sounds in Scotland when he played away games. That was something that he wanted to show people from all over the world. "They call him a monkey, as an Asian, but he wanted to show how strong...
Keep reading

Shehzad lifts Pak to series win

Feb. 3: A maiden century by teenage opener Ahmed Shehzad inspired Pakistan to a 41-run win over New Zealand Thursday to wrap up the six-match one-day series with a game to spare.The 19-year-old cracked 115 off 109 deliveries in a masterful innings in Hamilton as Pakistan posted 268/9 after being sent into bat first in the fifth ODI. New Zealand, who are on a rotten run of form, made the worst possible start to their reply, losing a wicket on the first ball when Jesse Ryder was run out and they never threatened from there.Their innings came to a halt in the 47th over at 227 to give Pakistan an unbeatable 3-1 lead in the series with one match washed out, while New Zealand have now lost 15 of their past 16 ODIs. It was a timely performance from Shehzad, who delivered on the promise he had hinted at in his previous seven international innings, which produced a total of 173 runs.Around him, the other Pakistan batsmen failed to get on top of New Zealand pace attack.Umar Akmals 32 befo...
Keep reading