Golfer disqualified for disregarding major rules
Round 2 of the Evian Championship on July 28, Ciganda started from the 10th hole, to the 7th hole, her team was reminded by the referee about being late. At the end of that hole, the group of Ciganda still could not overcome the problem of time, so when they went to hole 8, the referee timed each member.
On the 9th hole, the referee concluded that Ciganda was slow again and announced a two-stroke penalty. After the match, the Spanish golfer complained, but the law-making party still kept that decision. After actually fighting 72 strokes, Ciganda should have added two penalty strokes to make the second round score 74. However, she still scored 72, signed for confirmation and submitted it to the Organizing Committee.
With that action, Ciganda was warned that he would be disqualified once he left the scoring area. But she still defied that and went out. And so, the Organizing Committee immediately applied Article 3.3b(3) to try Ciganda. "Rule 3.3b(3) stipulates that a competitor will be disqualified if a lower score is recorded. The exception also does not apply to Ciganda because she already knew the number of penalty strokes and did not add it before submitting the result. ".
Two more penalty strokes, Ciganda's score increased to +6. If she skips that part, she goes to +4 and will win the whole prize because she passed the elimination line. This is not the first time Ciganda has been penalized for slow play on the LPGA Tour. At the LPGA Match Play 2021 hole tournament, she thought she would win Sarah Schmelzel by birdie on the last hole. But that hole, the referee judged Ciganda to be late, also applied two penalty strokes, causing her to lose to Schmelzel.
Ciganda is 33 years old this year, won 2 cups on the LPGA Tour, six on the Ladies European Tour after 12 years of playing professionally.
The Evian Championship 2023 takes place on the par71 course of the resort of the same name in Evian-les-Bains, France. The top of the group after the 2nd round belonged to the native player Celine Boutier with a score of -7 while T2 (-6) had Patty Tavatanakit, a Thai, and Yuka Saso, a Japanese.
