Challenge Tour pro disqualified for running out of golf balls

One of the worst things that can happen to a golfer, whether they’re a pro or a weekend warrior, is to run out of golf balls during a round. Well, one Challenge Tour pro experienced exactly that during a competitive round this week, and it got him disqualified from an event.

Clément Berardo was playing in the first round of the Andalucia-Costa del Sol Match Play 9, a Challenge Tour event, on Thursday at the Valle Romano course in Spain when he lost his final ball on the 16th hole. As a result, the 32-year-old Frenchman had no other option but to head to the locker room.

It had already been a pretty tough day for the 1,909th-ranked player in the world, who had missed his last four cuts on the European Tour’s developmental circuit. When he was disqualified from the tournament, Berardo was 10-over par. Berardo made a quadruple-bogey on the first hole, a pair of bogeys on the sixth and eighth holes, a double-bogey at the 10th hole, and two more bogeys on 14 and 15 before losing his final ball on the 16th. Brutal as this story can be, it’s at least a friendly reminder that — sometimes! — professional golfers are just like us.

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