PETER LAWRIE WAS disqualified from the Qualifying School Final Stage at PGA Catalunya Resort outside Girona this afternoon on a frustrating day for the Irish.
The 2008 Spanish Open winner was languishing in a tie for 116th starting today but he endured a disastrous round on the Stadium course when he slumped to an 86.
Afterwards, the Dubliner failed to return his scorecard and though be accident or design, playing regulations state that such an offence is punishable by disqualification.
“Peter never returned his card after his round so he was disqualified. I’ve never seen him do that before, but it does happen,” said a spokesperson for the European Tour.
Whether it was pure frustration or Lawrie simply forgot, he didn’t hang around to offer an explanation for his triple bogey, two doubles and seven bogeys.
It was a better day for Damien McGrane who he leads the home challenge, all of whom are aiming for full playing rights on the European Tour next year.
Though he still doesn’t know himself how much he plans to play in 2016, the 44 year-old’s game game looks in pretty good nick at present, as his round of 66 would attest.
He’s just seven shots off the lead of Austrain Lukas Nemecz, – and well inside the top 70 and ties who’ll make tomorrow’s cut.
Of that 70, the top 25 and ties will receive cards for next year. One man in danger of missing out, however, is Simon Thornton.
He shot a disappointing round of 73, his worst of the week on the supposedly easier Tour course. The Royal County Down player started today’s third round on four under but shot five bogeys to drop to one under in a tie for 71st.
Next best of the home challenge is Kevin Phelan on four under, 10 shots off the lead.
Like McGrane, it was the Mount Juliet man’s best round of the week, and his 66 came courtesy of a superb back nine that featured five birdies.
A shot further back is Paul Dunne, though the Greystones man was less than pleased with his round.
“I’m a bit disappointed, nothing was really on form today,” he offered.
“I drove it badly, hit a lot of bad iron shots and didn’t putt well so you tend not to shoot under par when you play like that but three more days, hopefully I can hit it a bit better and shoot some lower scores.
“Today, I didn’t give myself many chances, maybe a few outside chances but every time I hit a green it was 30-feet for a two-putt…but level par is not the end of the world.”
Elsewhere, Ruaidhri McGee carded a round of 73 and though he’s going to miss tomorrow’s cut after his 15-over yesterday, he was upbeat.
“It’s funny, I played well in Oman before this event and I was playing well but I don’t know what happened yesterday to screw up my chances.
“I just lost the plot and things went from bad to worse.
“Today, I was just going out to do anything after yesterday because I was in a bad way so I tried to enjoy it and get a bit of sun!
“But it’s been a long year for me.
“I’m tired so I’m just looking forward to doing nothing for a while.”