No quick fix for Roe, says Woosnam

Ian Woosnam, the last man to suffer Open heartache because of a rules blunder, today said Mark Roe’s disqualification would stay with him for a long time.

Roe and playing partner Jesper Parnevik were disqualified yesterday after failing to exchange scorecards before their third round and therefore signing for an incorrect score.

Sheffield’s Roe had fired a superb 67 which would have left him just two shots off the lead and partnering Tiger Woods in today’s final round.

Instead he headed for home and will watch someone else be presented with the Claret Jug which could have been his.

“It’s such a disappointment,” said Woosnam, who was penalised two shots on the second hole of the final round at Lytham in 2001 for having an extra club in his bag.

“The guys are so careful it’s amazing no-one spotted it. Why could they not have swapped the little labels?

“It’s the best round he has played in a long time in the biggest tournament in the world and for such a silly thing he has got disqualified. I don’t think any player would have said disqualify them.

“You can get over it, it’s that people keep reminding you about it, people still say to me have you got 14 clubs, two years on.

“It will stay with him for a long time. He does not have many years left to challenge in this tournament and the way he was playing he had a chance of winning.

“There’s not much you can say to him. He wants to go and bury his head in the sand somewhere.”

Woosnam echoed the views of many observers who felt there should be allowance made for such an unintentional breach of the rules from which Roe was clearly not trying to benefit.

“It was the same for me,” said the Welshman, whose offence was to have 15 clubs in his bag, a surplus driver accidentally taking him over the limit.

“I’m not going to hit the driver on the first hole (a par three) and even if I kept it all the way round I’m not going to use it. Rules are rules but it seems just a silly error.”

There was no danger of Woosnam suffering the same fate as Roe today as he found himself the odd man out of the 73 players left in the championship.

Royal St George’s assistant professional Michael Brooks played alongside Woosnam to mark his card but did not keep a score of his own, and Woosnam added: “I said to the recorders you can’t get my card wrong!”

Royal & Ancient secretary Peter Dawson said the game’s governing body had to shoulder some of the blame if not responsibility for the incident.

“It’s one of the great tragedies of championship golf,” Dawson said. “Our checking procedures have clearly failed and we take some blame but not responsibility.

“If it had been discovered before they left the scorers hut it could have been corrected but they had both left and were disqualified.

“We feel very bad about this. We like to think we have procedures in place - we have stopped a number of players being disqualified already this week – and we will be looking at them very hard.”

The decision to disqualify the pair was labelled “ridiculous” by former Ryder Cup player and television commentator Peter Alliss.

Former Ryder Cup captain Mark James added on the BBC: “I think it should be a question of intent when millions of people have seen you shoot a 67.”

However, defending champion Ernie Els felt the players unfortunately had to take the blame.

“That’s unbelievable, I’ve never heard of that any time in professional golf,” Els said. “The basic thing you do on the first tee is get your scorecard and swap it with others on the tee, that’s the norm.

“I know I’m being pretty hard on them but that’s just basically what you do and to do that in the biggest tournament in the world is unfortunate. I feel really sorry for Mark especially, he’d played himself right back into the tournament and now he can’t play tomorrow.”

World number one Tiger Woods added: “That’s too bad. It’s a shame that happens. Ivor (Robson, tournament starter) gives us our own cards every day and we are not used to that.

“It’s a bit tough but it’s ultimately our responsibility to have the correct card and make sure all the scores are correct.”

Sergio Garcia feels the players should be given their partner’s cards instead of their own, as happens on the US Tour.

“It’s awful,” said the young Spaniard. “You don’t want it to happen to anybody. Jesper is a good friend of mine and Mark was doing so well.

“Maybe if they gave us the cards the opposite way it would make it a little easier. In the moment it’s so tough to remember all these things.”