I've been watching a bit of the PGA Professional National Championship from Myrtle Beach because our friend Big Break Anthony is playing. Not that I need an excuse to turn on Golf Channel, but it's been very cute watching Theresa monitor and agonize over Anthony's hole-by-hole progress.
As a philosophical matter, it can be interesting watching guys that are really playing for something that matters to them. For instance, I found the old Fall Finish on the PGA Tour more interesting before the advent of of the wrap-around schedule, because the guys were fighting for their professional lives. That's pressure...
Same concept in watching the club pros try to earn a trip to Valhalla for the PGA Championship, and maybe even more so as these guys don't make their living playing the game. Where are you going with this, I hear the reader screaming, so I perhaps should get to my point.
Corey Prugh is one of the club pros playing this week in Myrtle, about whom I knew nothing as of two hours
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| The unfortunate Corey Pugh. |
ago. Corey is on the professional staff at Manito Golf & Country Club in Spokane, WA, and he stepped to the 18th tee at The Dunes Golf and Beach Club at +3, safe to be booking a plane ticket to Louisville unless he did something stupid.... Well, to quote famous golf authority Forest Gump, stupid is as stupid does and Corey made a nine. I didn't see the disaster, but there is water fronting the 18th green, but a nine would have required rinsing more than a single golf ball.
So, it got me thinking about other epic final hole collapses in golf history. Some you'll of course know, but perhaps other swill be new to you. I'm limiting myself to major 18th hole meltdowns, omitting short putts such as Doug Sanders or I.K. Kim.
1. Jean Van de Velde - Open Chamionship, Carnoustie, 1999
This is the golf standard for final hole meltdowns, and comes with great video and photographs, but I'll take a contrary position. Van de Velde got one of the worst breaks I've ever seen in televised golf, and shouldn't have found himself in this Hall of Shame.
With a 3-stroke lead, Van de Velde hit driver off the 18th tee, and that was pretty stupid as it brought the Barrie Burn into play. But he got away with the drive he pushed to the right and had a reasonable lie in the rough.
At that point, most people would have laid up short of the Barrie, which circles back across the fairway. But the Frenchman marches to his own drummer, and he decided to play over the burn towards the grandstand, from which he would receive a free drop. And the thing is he did it,his 2-iron easily cleared the burn, but hit a railing on the grandstand and bounced back to the far side of the burn. That might not have been fatal, except it was a wet year in Scotland and he drew a lie that he couldn't get a wedge through.
Thus begat the chain reaction that lead to his demise, though I give him props for gettng up-and-down from a bunker to actually get himself into the playoff won by Scotsman Paul Lawrie.
2. Sam Snead - U.S. Open, Philadelphia Country Club, 1939
Knowledge is king, and the Slammer didn't have that which he needed. He came to the 18th hole, a Par-5,
needing only a par to win the U.S. Open. Thing is, he didn't know that, as this was long before leaderboards or before the leaders went out at the end of the pairings.
For reasons obscured by the passage of time, Snead thought he needed to make birdie, and accordingly went for the green in two. From there he made an eight, costing him his best chance at an Open.
Since he never won an Open, the one major title that eluded him, that had to be the one he felt got away. Though his other close miss, while not exactly on point, deserves a retelling.
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| Measuring Snead's downfall. |
At the 1947 Open at St. Louis Country Club, Snead sank an 18-foot snake on the 18th hole to force an 18-hole playoff with Lew Worsham. The next day, Snead and Worsham were tied and both had three-footers for par on No. 18. Snead was over his putt ready to take it back when Worsham called for a measurement to determine whether Sam was, in fact, away. He was, but when he resumed his stance he missed.
Was it gamesmanship or a genuine concern for order of play, you make the call.
3. Phil Mickelson, U.S. Open, Winged Foot, 2006
Like the Slammer, a sure thing Hall-of-Famer for whom the Open is the missing title, Phil has famously finished second six times in the event. But while some of those were near-misses, this is the one he had his hands on.
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| Has anyone seen Phil in a yellow shirt since then? |
On the 18th tee with a one-shot lead, he almost caused a heart-attack in Johnny Miller when he pulled driver. The most amazing thing about that Open was that he had a lead, having sprayed his ball all over the township of Mamaroneck all week. He proceeded to block his driver left-of-left, bouncing it off a hospitality tent. But driver wasn't close to his stupidest decision on the hole...
In such a situation one obviously chips out, especially when you're Phil Mickelson, the greatest wedge player on the planet. And even should you fail to get it up-and-in, you have to like your chances in an 18-hole playoff against the relatively unknown Geoff Ogilvey, right?
But not our Phil, who tries to hit the hero shot, makes solid contact with several trees, and makes double-bogey. Honorable mention to Colin Montgomerie, who suddenly found himself with a chance to win the Open, but gagged on a seven-iron on No. 18 as well.
4. Arnold Palmer, The Masters, 1961:
Palmer had won the Masters in 1958 and 1960, and it looked like he was going to be the first player to go
back-to-back in '61 (Nicklaus and Faldo later did so). He hit a good drive on No. 18, and while walking to his ball spotted a good friend, towards whom he walked. His friend congratulated him on winning his third Masters and, well, you really don't want to be doing that.
Palmer put his second shot into a greenside bunker, bladed his bunker shot across the green under a television tower and made double-bogey. I hope he's still on Gary Player's Christmas card list if only for that gift.
5. Lorena Ochoa - U.S. Women's Open, Cherry Hills, 2005
Lorena Ochoa was not yet a household name when she came to the 18th hole at Cherry Hills in 2005. The course was playing brutally hard for the ladies, but playing more than an hour ahead of the leaders Lorena was 3-under on her day and a par would have likely been sufficient. Heck, a bogey might well have gotten it done.
The 18th at Cherry Hills plays over water from the tee, then uphill to the green. It's a difficult hole, the kind of stout finishing 4-par that the USGA has always loved, but the water should not really be in play for a professional golfer.
I can't possibly remember whether there was a leaderboard in sight, but the only possible conclusion is that the young lady became suddenly aware that the Open was hers to win. She put possibly the worst swing I've ever seen a professional make on the ball, and hit a low, ugly snapper that never had a chance to clear the water. Having nowhere to drop, she re-teed and did the exact same thing, ending her championship with a snowman.
For what it's worth, the only swing by a professional that I've seen that may have been worse than Lorena's was by Mark Calcavechia on the 17th hole at the Ocean Course at the 1991 Ryder Cup. That was Calc mid-epic-choke, letting Colin Montgomerie earn a halve after having him 4-down with 4 to play.
If readers (Maggot? Mark W.) can think of any I've missed, please e-mail me or post them in the comments and I'll be happy to add an update.
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