The Loop
Check out Kevin Chappell getting absolutely robbed by a flagstick at the Tour Championship
There's an old belief that Ben Hogan stopped aiming at flagsticks at some point in his career. According to legend, his ball-striking accuracy was so good that he was hitting too many of them and getting bad breaks. That's hard to believe, but we've certainly seen golfers get robbed by hitting the pin through the years.
Most famously, Tiger Woods' approach shot during the second round of the 2013 Masters that ricocheted off the flagstick on No. 15 and into the pond that protects the green. That began a rules controversy that cost Woods a shot at the green jacket and it all could have been avoided if he just hadn't hit such a perfect shot.
And on Day 1 of this year's Tour Championship, a piece of yellow-painted metal reared its ugly head again. This time taking an beautiful approach from Kevin Chappell and violently knocking it off the green and almost into a bunker. Check it out:
To Chappell's credit, he responded to the bad break well. The 30-year-old American, who is still searching for his first PGA Tour win despite five runner-ups, got up-and-down for par and then birdied to of the next three holes to make the turn in 31 and grab the early lead at East Lake.
Of course, we don't anticipate Kevin Chappell ceasing to take dead aim anytime soon. But this 60-footer about 30 minutes after his unfortunate bounce was a nice reminder that the golf gods aren't totally out to get him.