Italian Francesco Molinari suffered the first disqualification of his European Tour career on Friday - 24 hours after breaking the County Louth course record to lead the Irish Open.
Molinari had added only a 73 to his opening 63 - he was still only two off the lead at the time - but then failed to spot that playing partner Peter Hanson got two figures the wrong way round on his card.
The 26-year-old from Turin had taken a double bogey on the 442-yard 12th, his third, but Hanson waited until the turn to write down the scores because the weather was so bad and entered the six on the 13th instead.
Molinari added his signature, handed it in and left the recording area - and that meant disqualification when the mistake came to light as his statistics were being entered on a computer.
So instead of competing for a first prize of over Ј440,000 this weekend the 2006 Italian Open champion headed out of the event having earned nothing.
It was also a huge blow to his hopes of climbing into the world's top 50 in time to make a US Open debut next month.
Currently 72nd, he might now have to win next week's BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth to avoid the 36-hole qualifier at Walton Heath the following day.
He has taken part in that three times and failed on each occasion.
Hanson, meanwhile, reflected on his role in the incident.
"I felt guilty the moment I was told what had happened," he said. "I waited only because I didn't want to take the card out when it was raining so hard.
"I know these things happen, but it's just a shame that it happened to Francesco when he was doing so well in the tournament."
It was the second disqualification of the day. Northern Ireland's Michael Hoey threw himself out after discovering a 15th club - one more than permitted - in his bag.
That came after 10 holes of his second round when he stood two under, but because Hoey assumed it was there throughout his opening 71 and he should therefore have added penalty strokes he could not continue because he too had signed for a wrong score.
"I always have a rescue club and two-iron with me every week, but I just presumed my caddie knew that I wouldn't be taking the rescue because of the course," said the Portuguese Open champion.
"It's partly my fault, partly his I would say. I just didn't see it because it was under all the wet weather gear.
"It's so stupid and I can't believe it because I was playing well and trying to get up the leaderboard."
Collated second round scores & totals
(Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72):
129 Shane Lowry 67 62
131 Robert Rock 66 65, Jamie Donaldson 66 65
132 Paul Lawrie 66 66
133 Roope Kakko (Fin) 66 67, Nick Dougherty 66 67, Thomas Levet (Fra) 67 66
134 Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 67 67, Oliver Wilson 66 68, Lee Westwood 68 66, Johan Edfors (Swe) 64 70
135 Wil Besseling (Ned) 69 66, Gary Orr 68 67, Colin Montgomerie 70 65, Alastair Forsyth 67 68, Pablo Martin (Spa) 70 65, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 67 68, Andrew McLardy (Rsa) 69 66
136 Francesco Molinari (Ita) 63 73, Chris Wood 69 67, Anders Hansen (Den) 68 68, Rafael Echenique (Arg) 69 67, Lee Slattery 67 69, Marc Warren 67 69, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa) 67 69, Gregory Havret (Fra) 70 66
137 Shiv Kapur (Ind) 66 71, Ross Fisher 70 67, David Horsey 70 67, Marcel Siem (Ger) 69 68, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 68 69, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 71 66, Rory McIlroy 69 68, David Drysdale 69 68, Stephen Dodd 70 67, Julien Clement (Swi) 67 70
138 Robert Jan Derksen (Ned) 69 69, Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 69 69, Steve Webster 70 68, Graeme McDowell 77 61, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 68 70, Jose-Maria Olazabal (Spa) 71 67, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 71 67, Sam Little 72 66
139 Richard Bland 71 68, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 72 67, Paul Waring 72 67, Soren Hansen (Den) 71 68, Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 69 70, Simon Dyson 71 68, Darren Clarke 71 68, Graeme Storm 70 69, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 69 70, Gary Lockerbie 69 70, Brett Rumford (Aus) 73 66, Gary Murphy 70 69, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 71 68, Pedro Figueiredo (Por) 72 67, Emanuele Canonica (Ita) 69 70, Paul McGinley 71 68
140 David Carter 71 69, Patrik Sjoland (Swe) 73 67, Damien McGrane 69 71, Martin Erlandsson (Swe) 68 72, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 70 70, Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind) 74 66, Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Den) 72 68, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 68 72, Paul Broadhurst 71 69, Simon Khan 72 68, Anthony Wall 72 68, Alexander Noren (Swe) 70 70, Michael Jonzon (Swe) 71 69, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 69 71
Missed cut:
141 Mikael Lundberg (Swe) 68 73, Christian Cevaer (Fra) 74 67, Richie Ramsay 72 69, Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 72 69, Robert Dinwiddie 67 74, Steven O'Hara 70 71, Kenneth Ferrie 71 70, Seve Benson 74 67, Anthony Kang (USA) 69 72, Stephen Gallacher 68 73, David Dixon 72 69, Richard Finch 73 68, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra) 76 65, Bradley Dredge 71 70, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 73 68, Padraig Harrington 73 68
142 Daniel Vancsik (Arg) 75 67, Peter Hanson (Swe) 69 73, Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra) 72 70, Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 73 69, Jeppe Huldahl (Den) 70 72, Des Smyth 72 70, Richard Green (Aus) 71 71, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 78 64
143 Jonathan Caldwell 76 67, Alvaro Velasco (Spa) 73 70, Benn Barham 75 68, Peter Lawrie 72 71, Oliver Fisher 73 70, John Daly (USA) 68 75, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 75 68, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 71 72, Oskar Henningsson (Swe) 71 72, Peter O'Malley (Aus) 76 67
144 Eamonn Brady 71 73, Magnus A Carlsson (Swe) 71 73, David Howell 71 73, Scott Strange (Aus) 76 68, Rhys Davies 73 71, Klas Eriksson (Swe) 71 73, Eoin Arthurs 76 68, John Bickerton 77 67, Chapchai Nirat (Tha) 72 72, Barry Lane 73 71, Robert Giles 72 72
145 Noel Fox 72 73, Gareth Maybin 73 72, Francois Delamontagne (Fra) 69 76, Mark Brown (Nzl) 71 74, David Frost (Rsa) 70 75, Simon Wakefield 71 74, Felipe Aguilar (Chi) 74 71, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 74 71, Alessandro Tadini (Ita) 72 73, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 73 72, Ross McGowan 73 72
146 Barrie Trainor 73 73, Hennie Otto (Rsa) 71 75, Taco Remkes (Ned) 76 70, Phillip Price 71 75
147 Michael Mcgeady 75 72, Zane Scotland 76 71, Philip Walton 74 73, John Kelly (USA) 73 74, Scott Drummond 75 72, Pelle Edberg (Swe) 74 73, Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (Spa) 73 74
148 Alexandre Rocha (Bra) 74 74, Anton Haig (Rsa) 74 74, Michael Campbell (Nzl) 76 72, James Kingston (Rsa) 71 77, Scott Arnold (Hkg) 78 70, Phillip Archer 72 76, Simon Thornton 76 72
149 Estanislao Goya (Arg) 70 79
150 Per-Ulrik Johansson (Swe) 74 76, Mark Foster 74 76
153 Damian Mooney 76 77
154 John Dwyer 77 77
DQ: Michael Hoey, Francesco Molinari (Ita)
RTD: Jyoti Randhawa (Ind), David Lynn
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