When you gotta go, you gotta go. But Spanish amateur Jose Luis Ballester realises maybe he shouldn’t have gone after he apologised to tournament officials for urinating into Rae’s Creek.
Ballester who was handed the dream draw alongside defending Masters champion Scottie Scheffler sprinted across the fairway on the par-5 13th hole after playing his third shot and took a very literal form of relief in Rae’s Creek around 60 yards short of the green.
An ovation from the galleries was equally as bizarre as the incident itself and after appearing initially unrepentant after being asked about it after his opening round 76, the 21-year-old held his hands up, which were hopefully washed, after a second round 78.
“Well, I already apologised to the club and I think we just move on from this moment,” Ballester said.
Ballester said he had received messages of support from friends.
The Spaniard explained his situation on Thursday:
“I completely forgot that we had those restrooms to the left of the tee box,” Ballester said. “I’m like, ‘I really need to pee.’ Didn’t really know where to go and since JT had an issue on the green, I’m like, I’m just going to sneak here in the river and probably people would not see me that much and then they clapped for me.
“[It was] probably one of the really loud claps that got today, so that was kind of funny.” Pressed on whether he was concerned about doing this all in front of an audience, Ballester added: “They [the crowd] saw me. They saw me. It was not embarrassing at all for me.”
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