My Eyes
This video of a tour pro trying to hit from the water (twice) should come with a NC-17 rating
As first-round co-leader Billy Horschel explained on Thursday, conditions at PGA National are prime this week. The golf course is as receptive as it's been in years, which has allowed guys to play a bit more aggressively and shoot some lower scores.
But trouble still lurks at every corner, that trouble being water, which comes into play on 15 of the 18 holes at Jack Nicklaus' Champion course. Adam Long, who was right on the projected cut line after making the turn in his second round, found that out in the most excruciating way possible on Friday at the Honda Classic.
Long arrived at the 11th hole at one under on his round, even par for the tournament. After finding the fairway with his drive, he had just 148 yards to a front right pin and plenty of room behind it. Long's approach came up well short, however, finding the water but only barely trickling in and giving Long the option of trying to splash it out like a bunker shot, Bill Haas-style. His other option would have been to return to the spot he had just hit from, meaning a 150-yard approach shot for par. Long chose option 1 and... well ....
Brutal watch. NC-17 material, some are saying.
You have to feel for Long here. It's such a tough call. The sensible, hindsight is 20/20 move is to take your medicine, go back and hit a quality iron shot on the green and try to make a bogey putt from 20 feet. If you make double, you make double. What you cannot do is make triple or worse. But it's so tempting to try to blast this one out and save a miracle par, or settle for a solid bogey. Long couldn't resist the temptation, and he wound up hitting two pour chips and THEN going back to 147 yards out. He actually hit a great sixth shot, too, putting it to six feet. But he missed the putt for triple and made a disastrous, week-ending quadruple-bogey 8.
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