Throwback Thursday: Cabrera Bello disqualified for having no balls
The Background
After posting a first round of 72, Rafa Cabrera Bello had put in himself in to a good position at the 2010 South African Open.
By day two he had played himself out of the tournament completely. Standing on the 11th tee at 11-over-par wasn’t his biggest concern.
The Scene
With two sixes, an eight and a 10 on the card, Cabrera Bello was looking to somehow save his round and somehow avoid missing the cut. Unfortunately, he couldn’t continue due to every club golfers worst nightmare.
He had run out of golf balls.
Cabrera Bello was therefore disqualified due to the European Tour’s “one ball rule” as he couldn’t borrow one of his playing partners golf balls.
Despite rule 4-4a allowing a golfer to borrow items of equipment (except clubs) from a playing partner or an outside agency, the European Tour and Sunshine Tour state that if you start with a particular ball you can’t change to another. For example, if you start your round with a Titliest Pro V1, you can’t change to a Srixon Z-Star.
The Legacy
Tiger Woods’ had previously found himself in an awkward ball situation at the 2000 US Open where he recorded the largest winning margin in history.
If you haven’t seen it, his then caddie, Steve Williams, recalled how Woods had taken three golf balls out of his bag to practice putting the night before and forgot to replace them.
Therefore, Tiger apparently had one ball left on the 18th hole and luckily didn’t hit into the sea. If he had Williams faced a mad rush to find Woods the specific Nike prototype ball he was using.
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Matthew Beedle
Matthew has been playing golf since he was around 13 and took up the game at a local nine-hole municipal course with his friends before joining Pontefract & District Golf Club just over the hedge.
Still a member of Pontefract with a handicap of 3, he currently sits on the board of directors to help with digital and marketing initiatives in order to improve membership and visitor income.
Matthew graduated university with a First Class in Sports Journalism from Leeds Trinity University and has been working in the golf industry since graduating.
NCG’s social media & marketing manager, Matthew’s main job role is to increase website traffic to the National Club Golfer website via our email and social media channels as well as driving entries to grow our NCG Top 100s Tour events amongst other tasks.
Not one to change his equipment too often, Matthew currently plays the TaylorMade M2 driver which has lasted the test of time in his bag. Elsewhere, you’ll find him using the TaylorMade Stealth 2 three-wood with a Ping G425 Crossover 2-iron to aid his long game.
Through his 4-iron to Gap Wedge, Matthew uses the Ping i500 irons accompanied by Ping’s Glide 3.0 56-degree and 60-degree wedges.
Another club that has stood the test of time in his bag is a Nike Method Core MC-3i putter which has had to have the SuperStroke grip changed at least three times. Ball of choice is the Titleist ProV1.