Davis disqualified in Heidelberg

Brian Davis has seen his hopes of a €443,000 jackpot go up in smoke after an extraordinary disqualification in Heidelberg.

Davis was left with a one-inch tap-in at the eighth hole - his 17th - in the first round of the Deutsche Bank-SAP Open.

But he knocked it croquet-style with one foot either side of the ball and that was a breach of Rule

16-1e.

The 27-year-old England World Cup player signed for a three-under-par 69 and finished the day five behind leader Alex Cejka.

But only after the round was completed was the incident seen by the tour's chief referee John Paramor, who then disqualified Davis.

"I just happened to be watching a rerun of the play to see how far the drives were going on the fifth hole," he said.

"I saw Tiger Woods and Eduardo Romero hit there and the next thing they showed was Brian on the eighth green. He horseshoed out from four feet and I was thinking how unlucky he was when they also showed him tap in illegally."

Davis was in the first group of the day and it was seven hours after he finished that he was disqualified.