SICK AS a parrot? Gutted? How do you explain how a professional golfer, where every shot potentially adds a euro or 10 to his pay packet, feels at the moment when he realises he has thrown his own money away?

For Michael Hoey, the moment came in the middle of the second fairway yesterday. As he moved the wet gear to retrieve a three-wood to play his second shot, Hoey noticed for the first time that his hybrid club was in the bag.

Something clicked in his head. It shouldn’t have been there . . . and a quick count of his clubs 1-2-3-4 . . . 15. He had 15 clubs in his bag, one more than the rules allow. And, since he had used them in Thursday’s first round, the consequence was automatic disqualification. He wasn’t alone.

Francesco Molinari, who had shot a 63 to lead the way on Thursday, slipped back a little yesterday with a 73. Still, at eight under par he was very much in contention for the title. However, the Italian’s Hoey moment, with his stomach churning at realising a mistake, came after he had signed his card. Unfortunately for him, Molinari – who had double bogeyed the 13th – didn’t notice that the six had been put down for him at the 12th. The consequence? Automatic disqualification.

Hoey, who made his breakthrough with a win at the Portuguese Open last month, put his hands up and accepted the blame.

“I just realised before I was about to hit (his second to the second, his 11th) that underneath all of the wet gear in my bag there was an extra club. I knew right away that I had 15 clubs and they’d been there since yesterday, so I disqualified myself straight away for signing for the wrong score (on Thursday).

“I always have a rescue club and two-iron with me every week. I just presumed my caddie (Ian McGregor) knew that I wouldn’t be using the rescue because this is never a rescue club course. But it wasn’t taken out.

“It’s partly my fault, partly his. We didn’t even discuss it. I just didn’t see it because it was under all the gear and towels and then the headcover was exactly the same as my three-wood. It is so stupid, I can’t believe it.”

The onus is on a player to call infringements on himself. Hoey and Molinari certainly aren’t the first, and won’t be the last. Indeed, the first recorded disqualification was in the 1876 British Open when Davie Strath disqualified himself after being accused of a rules infraction for driving into the group in front.

He would have been in a play-off for the title with Bob Martin.