If anyone can empathise, or has a right to sympathise, with the fate that befell Mark Roe on Saturday - when he was disqualified, along with Jesper Parnevik, for signing the wrong scorecard - then it is Padraig Harrington.

In the "been there, done that" category of golfing mishaps, the Dubliner knows all about it . . . and that it is best to move on, and use it as one of the cruel fates that life throws at you.

In the International tournament at The Belfry three years ago, Harrington was disqualified prior to the final round when it transpired he hadn't signed his card after the first round. His playing partner Michael Campbell had signed it twice. The effect of the incident on Harrington was that he lost weight in subsequent weeks but, since then, he has developed as a player, moving from 30th position in the world rankings to his current ninth place.

"When it happened to me, I sat down and tried to figure out how it could possibly happen again. People said to me, 'It could never happen again'. I said, 'It could'. And I decided then there were two possible ways it could happen. One was that if I didn't sign my card and my partner did, as had happened me. There were two signatures (on the card) but neither of them were mine. I also decided that the only other mistake would be if I signed for my score on the wrong card, as Mark Roe has done.

"So, I actually sign the top of my card and on top of my name. Now, I always sign my card twice. I have a preventative policy to deal with it, and maybe everyone else should use that policy. When it happened to me, I sat down and tried to cover all options for the future. I'm not saying it won't happen to me again, the silliest things happen in golf all the time."

Silly is certainly a word that can be used to describe Saturday's shenanigans, when Roe and Parnevik failed to do the so-called "golfer's handshake" on the first tee and exchange cards, as players do day in and day out in club competitions. Instead, they marked their partner's score on their own card all the way round and never noticed the discrepancies when signing their cards in the recorder's hut. "There were three people to blame for what happened," insisted Greg Norman, "the players and the recorder."

Roe and Parnevik were disqualified under Rule 6-6D and, incredibly, in the R&A decisions book, there is a decision - 6-6D/4 - which explains identical circumstances to this particular incident.

Harrington described it as "chance, luck, fate, whatever . . . unfortunately, it happened, and you've got to feel sympathy. No one is to blame. It was a pure accident and it would be wrong to apportion blame or responsibility."

Roe, in fairness, took his medicine and accepted the decision to disqualify was the only one to be reached. And, while some argued the punishment did not fit the crime, as there was no question Roe had shot a third round 67 to put himself into the thick of the hunt for the claret jug, Harrington did not agree.

"Under the R&A rules of golf, I don't think it was too harsh," he said. "Under professional golfing rules, there is a certain call to move away from it, (but) really what we're talking about on the European Tour is the TV two-shot penalty that disqualifies a guy on a Saturday when he's leading going into the Sunday when realistically they should be able to add the two shots on.

"The R&A are responsible for golf all around the world and this tournament has to be run the same way. At the end of the day, your guy in your local club has to attest to his score and that's the whole idea in golf. You sign it off at the end of the day. The R&A in fairness are running a much bigger show than just the Open, they're running golf all around the world."