Gaurav Ghei disqualified for submitting a wrong scorecard

Gurgaon, Mar 1 (UNI) Luck played a cruel joke with Gaurav Ghei, who carded the best round in the early morning session today only to be disqualified for having ''submitted a wrong scorecard'' after the second round last evening.

The decision devastated Gaurav Ghei, who was initially too dumbfounded to react but came out with a three line statement saying,''It is deeply disappointing and it is a shame that all the people around and the referee did not spot the incident near the 18th green'' yesterday.

Announcing his decision to disqualify Ghei, Chief Referee John Paramor said he received a text message from one of the experienced referees who was watching the golf coverage the previous evening in which he noted that the player's ball had moved on the 18th as ''a result of him putting his club behind the ball to assess the lie having taken relief from the car path.'' Paramor further added,''Unfortunately, no one in the immediate area saw the ball moved but clearly on reviewing the TV pictures this happened. The ball does move, albeit for a very small distance. The situation is clear, he is penalized for the ball moving.'' ''If it had been noted before he played his next stroke, he could have corrected the error and saved himself a further penalty.

It would have been just a one stroke penalty had he replaced it. He failed replace it so two stroke penalty was imposed,'' the referee said and added,''The two strokes were not added to his second round score, So therefore, he has signed for a score lower than was actually taken and therefore he stands disqualified.'' Paramor admitted that Ghei was not aware of the situation (at that time). ''He (Ghei) did not see the ball move. The movement was so small. It was probably a centimeter at most, around a quarter of an inch, less than a centimeter. It is quite possible that it was missed by people standing around there.'' The referee said,''To be honest, if I could get him out of the penalty, would have tried every single way that I could, even if I had to wake up one of my colleagues in the UK and see if he could think anything. But there was no room for manoeuvring on this.'' Giving an example, he said this situation was similar to an incident involving Miguel Angel Jimenez in the Qatar open.

''He (Miguel) had caused the ball to move and he thought he ball had gone back to the original position but in that case, he did see the ball move. But in this case, Ghei did not see the ball move and that was the problem. It is a rather complicated way under the rules of golf.'' He clarified that by the time he started reviewing the TV footage this morning, Ghei was already playing the 18th hole (of his 3rd round).

''By the time we came to the conclusion that yes, the ball had certainly moved and we wanted to show him, he had completed his round.'' ''Ghei was simply devastated and extremely upset, when he was told of the disqualification,'' Paramor added.

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