The Butterfield Bermuda Championship has been hit by controversy as well as bad light. Play was suspended at around 5.20pm during Friday’s second round, with officials deeming it too dark for the action to continue.
There were 11 players still out on the course when the decision was taken, meaning they were due to tee-off early Saturday morning to complete their 18 holes.
Raul Pereda was one player struggling to make the weekend, having made consecutive bogeys to leave him two over par with just two holes to play.
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The projected cut line was two under par, but the Mexican never had the chance to make an unlikely late charge to secure 36 extra holes. Via social media, the official PGA Tour Communications account confirmed the player had been removed from their event.
“Raul Pereda was disqualified from the Butterfield Bermuda Championship during round two,” they wrote. Initially, the reason for the disqualification remained unclear.
But according to Golf Monthly, the decision was taken after the 28-year-old failed to report on time for to complete his round on the following day. A PGA Tour official was quoted as saying: “He was disqualified when he was not in place to play at the resumption of the delayed second round on Saturday morning."
The sanction completes a miserable two months for Pereda, who prior to Bermuda had made just one cut in his previous three tournaments. That came at the Black Desert Championship in America, where he finished tied for 54th.
His disqualification comes just a week after his compatriot, Emilio Gonzalez, suffered the same fate at the World Wide Technology Championship in his homeland. He was deemed to have failed to make a ‘reasonable effort’ to identify his ball after it landed in a waste area, breaching Rule 18.3.
Pereda’s plight also triggers memories of the famous incident involving Rory McIlroy at the 2012 Ryder Cup. The Northern Irishman was on the brink of having to forfeit his Sunday singles match, having overslept at the team hotel.
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He had just 25 minutes to get from his hotel room to the tee, which seemed nigh on impossible due to the traffic around Medinah Country Club. However, with the help of a police escort, he made his match with Keegan Bradley with five minutes to spare.
Incredibly, McIlroy proceeded to beat the American 2&1. It proved pivotal, with Europe completing a famous comeback to capture the trophy on foreign soil for the first time since 1995.
