The Loop

Did Stuart Manley just have the craziest round of golf ever?

November 23, 2013

It wasn't the best day of Stuart Manley's career, but it certainly was the most memorable. In fact, good luck to any pro golfer being able to top the Welsh golfer's roller-coaster round at Royal Melbourne -- not that you'd necessarily want to.

Manley began the third round of the World Cup with back-to-back birdies and then dunked an 8-iron on the par-3 third for a hole-in-one. To make things more exciting, Manley believed he had won a new Mercedes for his shot and went over to pat the roof of the car, which was displayed near the tee box. Part of the 346th-ranked player in the world must have been thinking, "This is too good to be true!" It was.

When Manley arrived to the third green to pick his ball out of the cup, he was informed the car was only a reward for a player making an ace on Sunday. He then made an 11 on the next hole. That's right, he made an 11. The hole after making a 1. A pro golfer went 1-11 on his scorecard. Golf! Here's video proof:

The septuple-bogey, thanks in large to having the same chip roll back to his feet twice, dropped him down the leader board even faster than he had vaulted up it. To his credit, he recovered from the wild sequence to play two under the rest of the way and post a one-over 72.

Manley summed up the incredible swing of emotions after: "I thought I had won the car, and the adrenalin was really pumping. The highest high to the lowest low."

We couldn't have said it any better.