Ever had a game of golf ruined by that person you just knew was 'Mr Rules'?

The one who tells you that your ball was actually one millimetre ahead of the tee posts and therefore represents an instant disqualification from your annual hacking session.

Maybe you never even got that far, because the man at the pro shop told you that your outfit was just not suitable for the golf course.

The captain of the England football team might be able to get away with a mohawk for a haircut, but that v-necked tee shirt will cut no ice on the fairways of courses up-and-down the country.

Janzen

Never fear though - its not just the amateurs that get picked on.

Lee Janzen, a two-time US Open champion, knows the feeling after the quirkiest of ends to his campaign at this year's championships.

During a first round that was disrupted by stormy weather, Janzen was required to leave a hole with his ball on the fairway.

When the American resumed, he wiped the area where his ball had finished before replacing his ball and continuing the round.

An official who saw the 'offence' deemed that worthy of a two-shot penalty, but failed to notify the player until he finished his second round.

Idiosyncratic

The infringement took him from a cut-saving total of five-over to an enjoy-the-flight home tally of seven-over.

It was not the first time that Janzen had fallen foul of law's idiosyncratic rules.

In the first round of the NEC World Series of Golf in 1998, Janzen was disqualified after a TV viewer turned him in for allowing his ball to sit on the edge of a cup for longer than is allowed.

It has not been established whether it was the same viewer who rang up the organisers of a US Tour event during the 90s regarding an 'infringement' by Craig Stadler.

The 'Walrus' found his ball nestling under some branches and was forced to play his shot from a kneeling position.

Not wishing to soak his trousers on the wet ground, he placed a towel between him and the grass, a heinous move spotted by a viewer who notified the authorities.

The eventual result was disqualification for Stadler.

Masters woe

No report has yet emerged as to whether the TV viewers in question have active lives.

Perhaps the most bizarre aspect of golf is the fact that so much rides on that piece of paper handed to the player before he starts his round - the scorecard.

In 1968, at the US Masters, Argentine Roberto De Vicenzo was set for a play-off with Bob Goalby to decide the winner of the first Major of the calendar year.

But dear old Roberto had mistakenly signed for a four at the 17th hole, instead of the birdie three that he had made and most had seen him make.

That of course cut no ice with the organisers, who can only go by the mark of a pencil.

Finally, the Benson and Hedges Open at the Belfry last year, which put paid to the 'luck of the Irish' theory.

Padraig Harrington failed to sign for a score going into the final round of a tournament that he led by five shots.

The result was that he missed out on a first prize of �166,000.