Nobody noticed the mistake until Lewis counted their players’ birdies after the round.
“I noticed that Kaitlyn wasn’t assigned any of her birdies,” said Lewis. “I checked the scorecard and saw the error and then called the rules officer to point it out. It’s pretty black and white in the rules of golf, but I can promise none of these girls will ever make a peat error again. “
A meeting between the captain and tournament officials ensued and Lewis’ first question was whether rule 23.2b had been changed in the recent rule changes.
“I know some of the rules have been changed from a DQ to a two-shot penalty,” said Lewis. “I’m kind of surprised that this wasn’t one of the rule changes.”
After Lewis made the final decision, Lewis had to tell their two players – Lewis is also the captain of a US men’s two-man team – that they had been eliminated from the semi-annual tournament, which featured teams from 20 countries.
“This is by far the worst thing I had to do this week,” she said.
Thursday was the third time a team had been DQed by Spirit, but the first time for a US team.
The US men’s team around US amateur champion Andy Ogletree and world number two amateur Cole Hammer can still fight for the men’s title, but not for the combined team championship.
With some encouragement from Lewis, Papp and Migliaccio plan to continue the three-day event as non-running players.
“When I played, I never had any problems with the score,” said Lewis, who has won twelve LPGA tours. “Once my caddy was accused of testing the sand, but that was just a two-shot penalty and the next day I won the tournament. It’s just very tough, but that’s golf. “
Click here to score from the ghost.