The Loop

Watch Ernie Els miss the shortest putt ever -- and then the putt after that (Updated)

July 17, 2014

Ernie Els has battled putting problems late in his career, but this was just ridiculous. On his opening hole at the British Open today, Els missed a one-foot putt. No, really.

To make matters worse, the putt was for bogey. To make matters even worse than that, Els backhanded the next putt -- from about two feet -- and managed to miss that, too. Here's proof of the unlikely three-putt, courtesy of SB Nation:

The misses were ugly, but the careless manner in which the second one happened -- especially from a four-time major winner and the 2012 Open champ -- was most shocking. There are 71 more holes, Ernie! Well, maybe not that many if you can't keep the triple bogeys off your card.

UPDATE: Els' careless putting makes more sense now. Apparently, he was very shaken up after hitting a spectator with his opening tee shot. "I was thinking about him. There's blood all over. And I was quite rattled . . . Yeah, I was kind of finished. And then started missing short putts. It was a nightmare. So I'd like to put it behind me. I just hope the gentleman feels better, because he looked really bad when I left him there." We do, too.