Andrew Oldcorn's hopes of qualifying for the Ryder Cup suffered a major blow when he disqualified himself from the Volvo Scandinavian Masters today.
Oldcorn, the Volvo PGA champion, realised midway through his third round that he had taken an incorrect drop during his first round on Thursday.
On the 10th hole his ball finished behind one of the small advertising boards alongside the fairway and instead of moving the board itself, he dropped the ball away from the board to get a clear shot to the green.
When he found himself in a similar position on the ninth hole this morning he realised that, under a local rule for the tournament, he had taken an incorrect drop and called the penalty on himself.
"It's disappointing but it's nobody's fault other than mine," said Oldcorn, who was two over par at the time. "I didn't realise you had to move the boards."
The 41-year-old Scot currently lies 14th in the Ryder Cup standings, less than 100,000 points (equivalent to around third or fourth place this week) behind Ireland’s Paul McGinley who currently occupies the final automatic qualifying place.
He is assured of a place in the USPGA Championship in two weeks' time but only the top 12 in the Ryder Cup standings after the final major of the year are invited to the NEC Invitational the following week, where each player in the limited field is guaranteed 25,000 points.
-PA