Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship: Padraig Harrington disqualified from the event
Padraig Harrington has been disqualified from the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship for violation of a rule.
The Dubliner was called by the authorities to review the incident which took place at the seventh green on Thursday.
Padraig, aka Pod, picked up the ball from the grass and brushed it with his hand. However, when he placed it back on the marker, the ball oscillated and moved a little. The veteran took the final shot and settled for a par. Later he
eagled the following hole and signed the scorecard with a 65.
The incident was not noticed by anyone on the course, except a television viewer who brought the matter to authorities’ attention.
According the rules and regulations laid down by the authorities, the ball should not be moved from the original mark by the golfer through any means.
As Pod violated the rule, he was disqualified from the tournament. If someone had highlighted the offence before the signing of the scorecard, the punishment would have been different as he would have been handed a two-stroke penalty.
The three-time major winner was extremely disappointed at the disqualification, as he was very close to a victory.
Harrington addressed the press and 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. At the end of the day that is good enough, but I would not have done anything differently yesterday - there was nothing I could do about it at that moment in time. As far as I was concerned it didn't
move.”
This is the second time that Pod has been has been disqualified from an event in which he had a good stake on victory.
Eleven years back, he was very close to victory with a five-stroke margin, but was disqualified, as he had forgotten to sign the first-round scorecard.
Tour senior referee Andy McFee, who disqualified Harrington, commented on the issue and said, “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.”
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