Given that this neck of the Turkish woods is a golfing haven for many a holidaying hacker, there have probably been one or two crude amateurs who have ran out of balls during a thrash around the countless courses that are dotted about the sun-soaked Antalya region. 

You don’t expect a leading touring professional to experience this kind of hopeless humiliation, though. Eddie Pepperell endured such a calamity on day three of the Turkish Airlines Open, however, during a mind-mangling palaver that eventually led to the two-time tour winner being disqualified.

Earlier in the week, Padraig Harrington took a crippling 10 on the Montgomerie Maxx Royal’s fourth hole and Pepperell suffered an even worse fate as he plunged a series of balls into the pond at that particular point of the course. 

The Herald:

“I ran out of golf balls, it was literally that,” he said in a sombre summing up of that almighty footer on the fourth hole which was his 13th of the day. Unlucky for some, eh?

“It’s not happened before, at least not to me,” he added. “I don’t know exactly [how many he lost] but it was a good few. I lost a few when going round, I know that, and then I ran out.”

His playing partner, Martin Kaymer, tried his best to explain the chaotic chapter which immediately drew comparisons to that well-kent golf film ‘Tin Cup’ in which the main character has a ruinous confrontation with a water hazard.

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“I have watched the movie ‘Tin Cup’ on TV but now I’ve seen it live,” said Kaymer with a chortle. 

“He put his second into water. Penalty. Then his fourth into the water. Penalty. Then he put his sixth shot into the water. Penalty.  Then after putting his eighth shot into the water he walked up to us to say he’d run out of balls. 

“It all happened so quickly and it was hard to count how many he’d hit. Eddie just didn’t look right. 

"He was clearly not happy. On the third hole he putted with his wedge. There was a lot happening.”