Steven O'Hara was jinxed by the same hole yesterday, the par-3 eighth, after he had made a tremendous start to his second round in the rain-delayed Telecom Italia Open.
The 26-year-old former Scottish amateur champion from Bellshill had three birdies in his opening four holes to move to six under par, four behind joint leaders Markus Brier, of Austria, Alvaro Quiros, of Spain, and Swede Joakim Backstrom.
However, O'Hara double-bogeyed the 224-yard eighth with its water-fronted green to fall back into the pack.
It was the last hole he played yesterday before darkness halted play.
O'Hara had opened on the Castello di Tolicanasco course with a three-under-par 69 that included a triple-bogey 6 at that hole which he said was a disaster he had expected because of his negative frame of mind.
The 6ft 2ins player went to Bob Torrance for help two months ago - following the lead of fellow-Scots Stephen Gallacher, Alastair Forsyth and Marc Warren - and said before the tournament that he had never been striking the ball better.
"Bob keeps telling me I'm hitting the ball well enough to win," he said, but O'Hara has much ground to make up, He is languishing at No.249 in Europe with only around 4000 to show from 11 tournaments. He has missed the cut in nine and is badly in need of a fillip.
O'Hara was still the leading Scot as Forsyth, who had opened with a 68, fell back to three under after seven holes of his second round.
Play was stopped for nine hours yesterday during which two inches of rain fell, but there was controversy on the restart because the 50 minutes of morning action was cancelled. The 35 players who had begun were instructed to start from scratch because the preferred lies rule had to be introduced.
"You can't change the rules once you've started, so if I want to use preferred lies I have to scrap what we've already done," said Andy McFee, the European Tour's senior referee. "In hindsight, it would have been cleaner if we'd gone for it first thing, but this morning we didn't need it."
It is the first time such a decision has been made in Europe, though it happened two years ago in the US at Sawgrass.
dissenting voice. He had started with a birdie that was wiped out like a disallowed goal, and he replayed it in only par.
Fellow-Englishman Richard Finch fared better having found water at his third hole and restarted with three straight birdies.
David Drysdale was frustrated again as he tried to get his season off to a profitable start.
Following a stop-start Spanish Open last week, the 32-year-old from Dunbar was left kicking his heels for the second week in a row. The second round re-started at 5.
15pm but Drysdale will have to wait until today to try to build on his opening two-under-par 70.
"Last week felt like it was the start of the season for me," said Drysdale, who had previously played six tournaments in South Africa and Asia. "It's so difficult to get a good, uninterrupted run, and I do better when I'm competing without breaks.
During one spell last year I played 14 out of 15 events and didn't miss a cut.
"My main goal is to try to guarantee my card as soon as possible. I don't want the same thing to happen as it did last year and the year before.
" In both years he missed out on retaining his card by a single place.
This season he has earned just over 20,000 which places him at No.167 in Europe, well outside the top 115 who retain their cards at the end of the season.
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