• Donald's round of 75 read as 73 by officials
• Clerical error causes nervous wait for world No1
Luke Donald, the world No1, was cleared to continue in the Masters after what was described as an "administrative error" with his scorecard, although he will have work to do to catch up after returning a three-over-par 75.
For a good two hours there were suggestions the Englishman was facing disqualification. He signed correctly for a 75 but his total was changed to a 73 on scoreboards and officials were asked to investigate.
The 34-year-old had three-putted the 5th green for a bogey five but the figure was entered into the scoring system as a three, creating the discrepancy.
"Just talked to Luke. Scorecard was correct," Donald's coach, Patrick Goss, tweeted. "Luke doesn't make that mistake. Too diligent and detailed." Donald's wife also took to Twitter to express her relief: "Just got off the phone with Luke, NOT disqualified. Thank goodness."
Reflecting on his round before the controversy emerged, Donald said: "I'm disappointed. I three-putted five and six and was three over and playing catch-up. I didn't hit enough greens and give myself enough opportunity for birdies. This place, if you are a little bit off, it can eat you up and I was eaten up today.
"I hung in there, a nice birdie on 17 and holed a nice putt for par on 18. With the greens being soft I would have thought someone would have gone low, but I'm only six back and if I can go out tomorrow and get back in the red numbers, hopefully I will be in the mix. I'm going to the range to work on my irons."
"I was a little bit off with those. I struggled with a bit with mud on the ball but everyone did. I had three or four today and it's hard to control those. It certainly cost me a couple of shots. My preparation has been as good as it has ever been. I almost wanted it to start last weekend because I was hitting it so nicely.
"Maybe I peaked a couple of days too early but hopefully I will find something on the range and go low tomorrow."
The Masters is famous for a scorecard blunder in 1968 when Roberto de Vicenzo should have been in a play-off with Bob Goalby but signed for the wrong score at the 17th. The Argentinian was not disqualified, however, because a par four was put down instead of a three. He had to accept the higher score and finished runner-up.
There was also the controversy of the 2003 Open at Sandwich. England's Mark Roe was in contention with a round to go, but he and his playing partner Jesper Parnevik were both disqualified because they had forgotten to exchange scorecards on the 1st tee and signed the wrong ones.
Padraig Harrington is another to have suffered a similar fate, in his case at the 2000 Benson & Hedges International at The Belfry. Five clear with a round to go, it was discovered he had not signed his first-round card three days earlier.