Golf star disqualified in embarrassing fashion and leaves abruptly | Golf | Sport
Taehoon Ok was sensationally disqualified from the Woori Financial Championship after losing six golf balls in embarrassing circumstances. Ok’s tournament unravelled spectacularly during the second round, as the four-time Korea Professional Golfers’ Association winner carded a quintuple-bogey nine on the seventh hole, a nightmare score for the 27-year-old.
The reigning Korean PGA Tour Money List champion had posted a level-par 71 on Thursday before setting off on Friday from the 10th hole at Seowon Valley Country Club, where his fortunes quickly took a dramatic turn for the worse. The three-time DP World Tour player sent his tee shot tumbling off the cliff to the right of the fairway on the seventh hole.
Determined to recover, he stepped up again, only to repeat the same calamitous shot five more times, exhausting his entire supply of golf balls and earning himself a disqualification from the event.
The KPGA Tour enforces a strict ‘one-ball rule’, which obliges competitors to use the same brand, model and colour of golf ball throughout the entirety of each tournament.
The USGA say: “The one ball rule is an optional condition that Committees may choose to use. If this rule is in effect, you must play with the same brand, make and model of golf ball that you started the round with.
“This means that if you start playing with a Titleist Pro V1, you must play a Titleist Pro V1 for the remainder of the round and may not switch to another brand or even another model of Titleist golf ball.”
Ok left the course without completing his second round in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, on Friday. Having exhausted his supply of balls, he was permitted under the rules to borrow an identical model, brand, and colour without halting play. Failing that, he was required to withdraw.
Ok had finished runner-up at the previous week’s KPGA Tour event, with his opening round featuring three birdies on the front nine before three bogeys on the back.
He teed off Friday’s play on the 10th hole, hopeful of an improvement on his first-round effort, but had accumulated 63 strokes by the time he reached the seventh hole at Seowon Valley Country Club, bringing his overall total to 134 — well short of the cut, which fell at two-over (144).
Ok’s disqualification opened the door for fellow Tour contenders to challenge for top honours, as 29-year-old Choi Chan posted a 13-under par total of 271 strokes, closing out the front nine at even par after registering four birdies on the back nine.
