Golfer disqualified after running out of balls

World No 1 for a record 683 weeks and now ranked fifth on the Official World Golf Ranking, Tiger Woods is known to track the career of fellow players. But of course, he wouldn’t be aware of world No 1909 Clement Berardo’s struggles on the Challenge Tour (feeder line to the European Tour).

Had Tiger known, he would have sympathised with the Frenchman after he got disqualified from the Andalucia-Costa del Sol Match Play 9 for running out of balls.

The 32-year-old is having a horror run, having missed cut in his last four starts on the Challenge Tour, and Thursday’s opening round at Valle Romano Golf in Malaga (Spain) was an extension of his struggles.

Tiger had come close to doing a Berardo at the 2000 US Open in Pebble Beach (California). The world’s best golfer took some balls out of his golf bag to his hotel room for putting practice after bad weather had suspended play but forgot to replace them.

In the third round, Tiger pulled his tee shot on the 18th hole into the Pacific Ocean to be left with just one ball, which he used to complete the round on way to a 15-shot victory, a record for Major championships.

Berardo had no such luck as he lost his final ball on the16th hole, a par five, and was disqualified for failing to finish the round. The lost ball brought a premature end to his round, which was dotted with a quadruple bogey, a double and four dropped shots.