Foolproof cards for players

Players were handed idiot-proof scorecards at the start of The Open today in a bid to avoid the calamitous mix-up which led to two players being disqualified in last year's tournament.

At the 2003 Open in Sandwich, England's Mark Roe, who was lying joint fourth with a round remaining, and Sweden's Jesper Parnevik were disqualified for forgetting to exchange cards and then signing for the wrong scores.

Organisers have now made the cards more user-friendly.

They are smaller so that they can fit into players' back pockets more easily, the lettering is bigger and the player's name is also printed below the signature box.

Official starter Ivor Robson was also stressing to players that he was handing them their own cards - standard practice on the European Tour but not in the United States - and leaving them to exchange.

Royal and Ancient chief executive Peter Dawson said: "I think it's hard to imagine what else we could do, quite honestly.

"This is the players' responsibility. And what we're doing is as much as we can to help him.

"The player's name is also printed below the player's signature box which should make it rather difficult for someone to sign in the wrong place - unless he doesn't know what his own name is."