Former European number one Ronan Rafferty's season hit a new low on Thursday when the Irishman was disqualified from the Scottish PGA Championship. Rafferty, 37, has not made a cut this year, missing out in all the 15 events he had played up to Gleneagles.
Then the 1989 Ryder Cup man, looked to have at last turned a corner when he picked up four birdies on the front nine to challenge for the lead. However, after running up three bogeys, Rafferty nosedived to what he thought was a double-bogey seven on the long 16th after he tangled with a bunker, hitting his ball into an unplayable lie in the face of it.
Rafferty took a penalty drop, and when his ball rolled down the face into the bottom of the bunker for a second time, he played the ball from where it came to rest. Worse was to come, though, when after signing for a 73, one over par, with a back nine of 41 which included his double at the 16th, he was told he had dropped incorrectly and should have added a further two penalty strokes.
Meanwhile, Ireland's Gary Murphy got off to a good start, shotting a first round 68 for four under par, which leaves him tied for fifth, two shots off the lead held by Jonathan Lomas of England.
Lomas held the early lead on six under, helped considerably by an albatross on the 12th, with Justin Rose, Warren Bennett and Scot Stephen Gallacher a shot behind. Wales' Mark Mouland was also six under par with five holes left when play was suspended for the day as darkness fell, only four of the afternoon matches able to finish.
Filed by Sinéad Kissane
