Challenge Tour Player Disqualified After Running Out Of Golf Balls

Frenchman Clement Berardo lost all of his golf balls in 16 holes during the Andalucía-Costa del Sol Match Play 9

Player Disqualified After Running Out Of Golf Balls
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Frenchman Clement Berardo lost all of his golf balls in 16 holes during the Andalucía-Costa del Sol Match Play 9

Challenge Tour Player Disqualified After Running Out Of Golf Balls

Clement Berardo was disqualified from this week's event on the Challenge Tour for running out of golf balls.

The Frenchman was playing in the Andalucía-Costa del Sol Match Play 9 near Malaga and had to walk off on the 16th hole after losing his final golf ball.

Berardo, ranked 1,909th in the world, had a nightmare round and was 10 over par after 15 holes.

He began the day with a quadruple-bogey nine on the par-5 1st, where he presumably lost two golf balls.

It didn't get any better for him, as two bogeys at 6 and 8 were compounded by a double-bogey at the par-5 10th.

Presumably another ball went at the 10th, but two more could well have gone at the 6th and 8th in those dropped shots, considering that the 6th is a short 315 yard par-4 and the 8th is another par-5.

Two more dropped shots followed at 14 and 15 to take him to 10 over, and then all of his golf balls disappeared on the 16th, ensuring that he was disqualified for not completing his round.

Similar scenes could have happened at Pebble Beach in 2000 when Tiger Woods teed it up on the 18th hole in the third round and lost a ball in the water left.

That meant that he only had one golf ball left in his bag, which caddie Steve Williams knew but Tiger didn't.

It happened because Woods had taken some balls up to his hotel room to practise his putting after play was suspended due to bad weather.

He forgot to replace the balls, but luckily had just enough to finish his third round before going on to win by 15 strokes the next day.

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Elliott Heath
News Editor

Elliott Heath is our News Editor and has been with Golf Monthly since early 2016 after graduating with a degree in Sports Journalism. He manages the Golf Monthly news team as well as our large Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. He covered the 2022 Masters from Augusta National as well as five Open Championships on-site including the 150th at St Andrews. His first Open was in 2017 at Royal Birkdale, when he walked inside the ropes with Jordan Spieth during the Texan's memorable Claret Jug triumph. He has played 35 of our Top 100 golf courses, with his favourites being both Sunningdales, Woodhall Spa, Western Gailes, Old Head and Turnberry. He has been obsessed with the sport since the age of 8 and currently plays off of a six handicap. His golfing highlights are making albatross on the 9th hole on the Hotchkin Course at Woodhall Spa, shooting an under-par round, playing in the Aramco Team Series on the Ladies European Tour and making his one and only hole-in-one at the age of 15 - a long time ago now!


Elliott is currently playing:


Driver: Titleist TSR4

3 wood: Titleist TSi2

Hybrids: Titleist 816 H1

Irons: Mizuno MP5 5-PW

Wedges: Cleveland RTX ZipCore 50, 54, 58

Putter: Odyssey White Hot OG #5

Ball: Srixon Z Star XV