Australians Morgan Ruig and Evan Shay didn't 'trick' their way into a North Korean pro golf tournament

Two Australians who claimed they conned their way into a pro golf tournament being held in North Korea were conning the media instead.

Yesterday, media outlets from Nine News to Golf Digest reported that two Brisbane men fooled officials in North Korea into thinking they were professional golfers, enabling them to compete in an official golfing event.

They came up with the idea, they claimed, over a long lunch while they were in Beijing, playing a polo tournament.

A cleverly worded email was all it took for the Brisbane men, named Morgan Ruig and Evan Shay, a real estate agent and a builder respectively, to gain entry to the 2016 North Korean Amateur Golf Open.

The men then went about organising official blazers for the event, hastily assembled by a local tailor in Beijing, with the inscription "Polo and Golf Grand Slam Tour The Orient 2016" together with the Australian emblem.

On arriving in North Korea, apparently the country's officials "rolled out the red carpet", chauffeuring the lads around Pyongyang on official tours.

"It was fantastic. We were well looked after, the people were lovely and kept us well fed and full of beer!" Ruig reportedly told CNN.

However, it became apparent the Brisbane men weren't cut out for golf from the first tee. By the tournament's conclusion, the only competitor they finished ahead of was the teenage daughter of another country's ambassador.

One would think that North Korean officials would not be amused, but apparently they "saw the funny side" of the joke. Funny, since North Korean officials aren't known for their sense of humour.