Tour pro admits he and Tommy Fleetwood were caught 'cheating' at golf
England's Eddie Pepperell has revealed how not reading the fine print led to he and Tommy Fleetwood being disqualified from a golf tournament.
Eddie Pepperell has revealed how not reading the fine print led to a disqualification for himself and Tommy Fleetwood whilst competing for England at a junior golf event.
Pepperell made the confession on the most recent edition of The Chipping Forecast.
It should be noted the 'cheating' act was not deliberate but hilarious nonetheless.
Pepperell and Fleetwood were in Argentina playing in a pairs and individual event. Both were amateurs.
They were leading the team element heading into the final day. Fleetwood was leading the individual competition.
But the severe weather meant tournament officials decided to allow the competitors to pick and place their golf balls from the fairway during the final round.
Or so Pepperell thought.
In fact, it was pick and replace.
He told the podcast: "Have I told you the story - I'll tell it very quickly if I haven't - about the time in Argentina when me and Tommy went out there for England and played a team competition and an individual competition?
"We were amateurs - this was towards the end of our amateur careers - and Tommy was very good.
"And we went out there playing this tournament and we were leading the team event going into the final day and Tommy was leading the individual just ahead of Emiliano [Grillo] going into the final day.
"And we had these unbelievable rains so we played pick and place for the final round.
"But it was pick and replace which I thought was really odd and I didn't read the little sheet we got on the first tee."
He continued: "So I was just playing pick and place within six inches as we do [and] we got all the way to the last green and I said to my playing partner, 'Am I on the fairway can I pick and place it?'
"He said, 'Yeah, you can pick and replace it.'
"I though that's odd why has he brought that up? So anyway, I picked it up, cleaned it and put it on a lovely little lie and chipped it in close.
"He [playing partner] refused to mark my card. He accused me of cheating and said, 'You moved your ball'.
"I said, 'Well yeah, I've been doing it the whole round.' And he said, 'Well how many times?'
"I said I don't know, so I was disqualified, which meant we were disqualified as a team and we were leading.
"And then Tommy gets in and he would've won the tournament and he's done exactly the same thing! So we all ended up getting disqualified."
Pepperell said he didn't understand the rule given how many times golf balls were plugging on the wet fairways.
"I mean it made little sense," he said.
We second that.
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