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Whilst the majority of the world’s eyes are trained on Royal Portrush for this week’s Open Championship, a peculiar incident has happened at a qualifying event for the US Amateur.

Playing in a Florida State Golf Association qualifier at Mayacoo Lakes Country Club in West Palm Beach this week, a golfer shot what is believed to be one of the highest competitive rounds ever records – a simply remarkable 131-OVER 202.

That’s right – two hundred and two shots.

Trey Bilardello, 33, reportedly plays off 2.2 but was disqualified after the event for “serious misconduct and failing to play in the spirit of the game”.

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In an email to Golf Digest, Beth Major, the USGA’s senior director of championship communication, said: “His disqualification was deemed appropriate as a result of the individual’s failure to show consideration for other players—deliberately playing away from the hole to run up his score.” 

Kristian Fortis, who played with Bilardello, told the Golf Channel: I’ve never seen anything like it before. It was quite an experience. He started off like normal. He had two pars and then it started to go downhill.

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“After the first nine, he said that he wanted to shoot the highest
recorded score in USGA history. He just did not care. He was really rude
to a lot of the officials, too. Something was off.”

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Bilardello’s score included a 25 on his 11th hole and a 21 on his 13th.

As well as being an amateur golfer, Bilardello is also a tour caddie,
and carried the bag for Matt Every as recently as the John Deere
Classic last week.


author headshot

Michael McEwan is the Deputy Editor of bunkered and has been part of the team since 2004. In that time, he has interviewed almost every major figure within the sport, from Jack Nicklaus, to Rory McIlroy, to Donald Trump. The host of the multi award-winning bunkered Podcast and a member of Balfron Golfing Society, Michael is the author of three books and is the 2023 PPA Scotland 'Writer of the Year' and 'Columnist of the Year'. Dislikes white belts, yellow balls and iron headcovers. Likes being drawn out of the media ballot to play Augusta National.

Deputy Editor

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