It would have been a dream come true for a club professional like me to play in the Open

It would have been a dream come true for a club professional like me to play in the Open at St Andrews especially considering that it was probably the best round of golf I have played in my life. He said: "It is unbelievable that you can be disqualified for what I consider to be a triviality. All the scores were right, the additions were right and the signatures were in the right places. Had Law and Reid reversed the names on the two cards before handing them in they would not have been disqualified.Reid's scores would not have got him in in any case but Law, who had one of the lowest aggregates at Lundin, was "totally devastated". Law had been marked down as 69-73 (142) and Reid 76-66 (142) when it should have been 69-66 (135) and 76-73 (149) respectively.David Harrison, an official of the Royal and Ancient, contacted the R and A at St Andrews and Law and Reid were disqualified. When they came into the recorder's tent and handed in their cards they realised a mistake had been made.

Langmead, thinking he had Law's card, marked it correctly but did not notice Reid's name at the top. The third member of the party, Jonathan Langmead, shot 78 and his score, although irrelevant in terms of qualifying, was correctly marked.At the start none of the players realised they had been handed the wrong cards. Law signed for his 66 on a card bearing the name of one of his playing partners, the American Steve Reid Reid signed for a 73 with a card bearing the name of Law. In the recorder's tent the dream became a nightmare. Law, the 30-year-old professional from the Uphall club in Edinburgh, was disqualified after an extraordinary mix-up over the cards. Last year he failed to qualify for Turnberry by one stroke but this time it was different. Law shot 66 at Lundin Links yesterday and with an aggregate of 135 he had easily realised his dream of playing in the 124th Open at the home of golf. She may then decide to enter a WTA Tour event, the Los Angeles championships on 7 August or the Canadian Open on 14 August.n Injury yesterday forced the second seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov to withdraw from the Stuttgart Open clay-court tournament.

The Russian world No 6, who beat the Swiss Jakob Hlasek in Sunday's Swiss Open final, is struggling with an injury to his left knee.. TIM GLOVER Gordon Law has never played in the Open. I need a challenge.''Seles is due to take her first steps back to the sport when she plays Navratilova in an exhibition match in Atlantic City on Saturday week. Gabriela Sabatini, ranked No 8, said: "It is very tough to come up with something good for her and still be fair to the rest.''A compromise needs to be resolved, for, as Graf said: " needs Monica The players need it The media needs it The tour needs it I need it. Sanchez Vicario, currently No 2, said she would be "unhappy" if Seles was given back her former ranking. Moves to allow Seles to return as the No 1, or ranked No 1 jointly with Graf, met with opposition from leading players during a meeting at Wimbledon."I don't agree with the proposals," Graf said, having expressed the view earlier in the year, when ranked No 2, that she would not object to Seles returning as a joint No 1. She paid three visits to the All England Club, and was defeated by Graf in straight sets in the 1992 final."Discussions are still going on regarding Monica's ranking," a WTA spokesperson said yesterday.

The only major championship missing from Seles's CV is the Wimbledon title. She has twice won the US women's singles title, defeating Martina Navratilova in 1991 and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in 1992.The eighth and last of Seles's Grand Slam singles titles came when she defeated Graf at the Australian Open in January, 1993. The former world No 1's name was on the list of entries well before yesterday's deadline.The next move will be for the United States Association to award Seles a wild card and decide upon a seeding. Seles no longer has a world ranking, having been absent from the sport since she was stabbed in the back by Gunther Parche, a fanatical Steffi Graf supporter, during a change- over while competing in Hamburg on 30 April, 1993.Although the Women's Association Tour still has to decide what to do about Seles's status when she returns to the circuit, the USTA reserves the right, as the organiser of one of the four Grand Slam championships, to seed players as it sees fit.''The paperwork is in,'' a representative of Seles's agent, the International Management Group, said, ''What form Monica's entry will take will be determined later.''Seles, 21, was born in Novi Sad, in what was Yugoslavia, but became a United States citizen in March, 1994, having been based in America since moving to Florida for tennis training in 1983. Tennis JOHN ROBERTS Monica Seles has confirmed her intention of making a comeback by applying for entry for the United States Open, which starts on 28 August. "All I need is a good week, a big win and I'll make it." And if he didn't? "To be quite honest I wouldn't want to meet the Americans if I wasn't playing well."His body language suggests he thinks that is unlikely.

The forlorn figure which trudged the fairways as he missed the cut three tournaments in succession this season has gone and been replaced by a perkier man altogether He even looks happy, when he is not worrying about his back "At least I have a smile on my face again," he said A broad one for certain if he prevails this week.. "I will play in the six tournaments up to the end of the qualification period and that should be enough," he said recently. That is by no means a formality as Nick Faldo is hardly playing this side of the Atlantic and Jose-Maria Olazabal has a foot injury that might also require him to be selected. Before I didn't have a clue."Which has implications beyond this week.