Dishonest Caddie Causes Player's DQ on Euro Tour
The caddie of Jose Manuel Lara performed what might be called a bush-league maneuver during the first round of the European Tour's BMW International Open, and it got his player disqualified. The caddie, Mathias Vinson, realized on the second hole that there were 15 clubs in Lara's golf bag. Whoops, that's one too many. Rule 4-4 in the Rules of Golf limits golfers to carrying 14 clubs. What Vinson should have done was notify Lara of the mistake. Lara would have notified rules officials, and the proper penalties — two strokes per hole — would have been applied. A terrible way to start a tournament, to be sure, but at least Lara would still be playing a minimum of two rounds, and he'd still have a chance to recover. But that's not what caddie Vinson did. Instead, he tried to hide the extra club in the bushes. Seriously. Lara didn't pay any attention when his caddie disappeared into thick bushes on the second hole; he assumed the caddie simply couldn't ...