Marcel Siem disqualified himself from the French Open on Thursday after he thought that preferred lies were in place for the opening round.
Siem lifted, cleaned and placed his ball five times on the front nine at Le Golf National, incurring a two-shot penalty for each infraction. Prior to the penalty strokes, he had shot 1-over 37 across that opening nine holes.
“That was a little too much for me and I disqualified myself,” he wrote on Facebook. “I thought I owed you the explanation.”
Full-field scores from the Open de France
It was a costly mistake for the 39-year-old German, who now faces the prospect of trying to earn back his card via European Tour Q-School. He entered the French Open ranked 189th in the season-long Race to Dubai standings.
“Now I’ll be meticulously preparing for the Qualifying School in November to get the full tour ticket back so I can finally go forward again,” said Siem, who has dropped to No. 794 in the world and remains without a top-10 worldwide since 2017. “I promise I’ll be back.”
Siem’s embarrassing DQ is the second rules crackup in as many days, after Lee Ann Walker was assessed 58 penalty strokes because her caddie was helping her line up shots at the Senior LPGA Championship. Walker remained in the tournament, signing for rounds of 127-90.