Harrington disqualified from Abu Dhabi Championship

Padraig Harrington has become the latest high profile golfer to fall victim to TV evidence after being disqualified from the Abu Dhabi Championship.

Harrington had made a good start to his challenge for the event, opening with a seven-under par round of 65 to lie just one shot off the first round leader, Charl Schwartzel.

Harrington’s indiscretion came on the seventh green, where his hand brushed the back of his ball as he replaced it in front of his marker.

The ball moved forward slightly, and although Harrington believed at the time that the ball had returned to its original position, TV evidence later showed that it did not go all the way back.

The matter was referred to the European Tour by a viewer watching the event on TV, who in turn had no option but to disqualify Harrington for signing an incorrect score card. The penalty would have been two strokes had the mistake been addressed prior to his signing his card.

After being disqualified, Harrington 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’s good enough, but I wouldn’t have done anything differently yesterday – there was nothing I could do about it at that moment in time.

“If I’d called a referee over it would have been pointless because if he’d asked me where my ball was I’d have said it was there. As far as I was concerned it didn’t move.”

Senior European Tour referee, Andy McFee delivered the bad news to Harrington on Friday morning.

“I got an email from the Tour feedback site just before six o’clock last night. I managed to get a look and knew immediately we had an issue. I got all members of the rules committee to look at the tape.

“Because everything was closing down I decided to sleep on it and speak to Padraig first thing this morning. It’s a minute movement, but it’s a movement and he never replaced it, so he should have included a two-stroke penalty.

“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.”

It is the second time in Harrington’s career that he has been disqualified while holding a chance to win a tournament. Eleven years previously, Harrington was disqualified from the Benson & Hedges International at The Belfry despite leading by five shots with one round to play, after it was discovered he hadn’t signed his first round scorecard.

Harrington’s ruling comes three weeks after Columbian Camilo Vilegas was disqualified from the Hyundai Tournament of Champions in Hawaii, after a TV viewer claimed he had improved his lie by knocking some loose turf from the path of his ball.