Pepperell makes watery exit after Tin Cup moment

The world number 47 was later disqualified for "failure to complete a hole", officials said after the 28-year-old emptied his bag at the par-five fourth. "Eddie hit his shots to the green then came over to tell us he had run out of balls," former U.S. Open champion Martin Kaymer told reporters. "Then he walked off."

Kaymer wasn't sure if Pepperell had hit four or five balls.

"He was quick, so it was hard to keep track. He did not ask if he could borrow one. It did not look like he wanted to play."

Only in the movie "Tin Cup" had he ever seen anything like it, Kaymer said.

Contacted by text in his hotel, Pepperell would only say there was “nothing to add really” although he admitted he too was unsure how many balls he had launched into the water, Golfworld reported. (Reporting by Gene Cherry in Salvo, North Carolina, editing by Ed Osmond)