GOLF ROUNDUP : Player, Charles Disqualified After Wrong-Ball Incident

Gary Player was confused. Bob Charles was upset. And both were disqualified from the Chrysler Cup team match because they each played the wrong ball--their own--on the first fairway of the Seniors event Friday at Sarasota, Fla.

The International team format calls for each player to drive, then hit his partner’s ball on the second shot.

“I’ve never heard of this competition before this week,” Charles said. “And as far as I’m concerned, I don’t want to hear about it again. I thought you hit two shots, then rotated. I didn’t read the fine print. I just didn’t know the rule.”

Player said he, Charles and their caddies simply erred.

“We were four fools,” Player said. “You wonder how something like that happens with four grown-up people. Maybe that’s when you get over 50, I don’t know.”

The disqualifications helped give the United States a 12.5-7.5 lead over the Internationals.

Player and Charles will be eligible for the final two rounds, including today’s team best-ball stroke play competition.

In other matches, the U.S. team’s George Archer and Miller Barber tied Bruce Crampton and Brian Waites at 68, four under par; the Internationals’ Simon Hobday and Harold Henning edged Chi Chi Rodriguez and Charles Coody, 66-67, and Americans Lee Trevino and Jim Dent beat Bruce Devlin and Roberto DeVicenzo, 68-72.

Each match at the Tournament Players Club at Prestancia was worth five points.

Patty Sheehan moved closer to finally winning a Hawaiian Ladies Open at Honolulu, shooting a three-under-par 69 for a two-stroke lead entering today’s final round.

Sheehan, winner of 25 LPGA events and a perennial contender here, birdied four consecutive holes on the back nine and stood at seven-under after 36 holes. She opened with a 68 and began the second day trailing Jennifer Wyatt by two strokes.

Beth Daniel, the defending champion, was two strokes back after a 70. Stephanie Maynor shot 68 and was four under.