Misfortune at the British Open

It was a great day, then a terrible day for Mark Roe at the British Open on Saturday. The veteran journeyman walked off the course with a third-round 67 that left him at 1-over par, right in the thick of things. A short time later, he was walking home, disqualified.

What happened is this: Roe and playing partner Jesper Parnevik were handed each others scorecards before the first tee (Roe was given Parnevik's, Parnevik was given Roe's). They should have exchanged scorecards, but never did.

So throughout the round, Roe was writing his scores on Parnevik's card, and Parnevik on Roe's. The scores they each wrote down were correct, but were written on the wrong scorecards.

So when they signed their cards, they signed incorrect cards - and that's a DQ. Under Rule 33-7, the British Open committee could have overturned the players' DQs. But following a meeting on the matter, it chose not to do so.

It was a heartbreaking result for Roe, who will now always wonder what might have been on Sunday. There's a good article covering the episode on espn.com.

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