England's Richard Finch implodes at the Open with sextuple-bogey

England's Richard Finch had 30 pars in 36 holes at Royal Lytham but crashed out of The Open after a calamitous sextuple-bogey 10 in his second round.

After dropping four shots yesterday the Hull-born golfer had a steady start as he played the first six holes in regulation to make it 20 successive pars for the tournament.

However, he bogeyed the par-five seventh before imploding at the 416-yard next.

"I played the first six holes really nicely but then three-putted the seventh trying too hard to force a birdie then got into a bit of pickle going up the eighth hole," he said.

"Playing safe and conservative was not really the way and it went from bad to worse."

Finch drove into a bunker and his escape hit the face and dropped into deep rough from where he carved it into trees and declared his ball lost.

His second ball was in a similarly bad patch in the rough and his attempt to get out only resulted in a worse lie from where he had to take a penalty drop.

He hacked out, pitched on to the green and two-putted.

"I think that was 10. Everyone in our group thought it was 10 so that was good enough," added the Manchester-based 35-year-old who is famous for falling into a river on the final hole of his 2008 Irish Open victory.

"I never went into a downward spiral, it was just the way events unfolded.

"You are seething with anger after that but that doesn't really solve anything so I suppose when you've been doing this long enough you have to get the best out of it.

"It's not the first time it has happened. I've no idea when my last 10 was and I don't want know either.

"It is easy in hindsight to say I should have played out of the bunker sideways but if you did that every time you'd never get anywhere.

"There is a lot I would like to have done differently in terms of the results that happened but if I went back the decisions I made for the shots I played would be the same."

Finch added: "It was then a case of getting round and it was a long 10 holes (which included a further eight pars and two bogeys) from there.

"I've made 30 pars out of the 36 holes I have played so it is not that bad but it is just one of those things that is not going at the minute."

PA