Overnight leader Padraig Harrington was dramatically disqualified from the Benson and Hedges International Open before his final round at The Belfry today for forgetting to sign his scorecard on Thursday. The news was only announced half an hour before Harrington was due to tee off.
He had been five strokes clear of Spains Jose Maria Olazabal and Welshman Phil Price, but they were left as joint leaders, four ahead of the 19-year-old Australian amateur Adam Scott. Olazabal's second successive 66, highlighted by an eagle on the long 17th, gave the the 1990 champion his first victory since the US Masters 13 months ago. He held off the challenge of Welshman Phil Price to win by three with a 13 under par total of 275. Nobody else was in the hunt, Scot Andrew Coltart and Argentina's Jose Coceres sharing third place five strokes further back.
Harrington's disqualification meant that he missed out on going to a highest-ever world ranking of around 25th and on going third in the European Order of Merit.
Harrington said: "Obviously this is not how the day was meant to turn out. It's not exactly like I did something wrong, but you live by the rules. I'm always the last to leave the recorders area - I assume it's my accountancy training. I check my card four, five or six times. But this time I was sitting on the end of the table and Jamie Spence had my card at the other end. He passed it across and Michael Campbell in the middle must have signed it and then realised it was not his. I must have then gone through all the figures, but only glanced at the two signatures."
First prize was £166,600 and it would have lifted Harrington to third in the European Order of Merit and to his highest-ever position on the world rankings - around 25th.
