Daggers
This missed tap-in that cost a golfer his first PGA Tour start is painful to watch
Our favorite Monday qualifier stories are the uplifting ones. You know, like earlier this year when Michael Visacki went viral for that emotional phone call to his dad letting him know he had qualified for his first PGA Tour event. Well, put simply, this is not one of those stories.
Justin Warren was close to having one of those special moments when he played his way into a sudden-death playoff for the fourth and final available spot in this week's Barracuda Championship. Instead, the 24-year-old went viral for a different, more painful reason.
Here's the brutal conclusion to the playoff. Just be warned, it's tough to watch:
Yikes. That miss looked like it couldn't have been more than a foot. Again, yikes.
On the bright side, Mark Baldwin, who detailed the difficult economics of being a journeyman tour pro to our Daniel Rapaport last year, got the final spot. Hey, for every heartbreak, there's a more uplifting story. Baldwin joined Justin Suh, John Greco, and Akshay Bhatia in the foursome that will tee it up at this week's PGA Tour event.
Of course, there was plenty of reaction on social media to Warren's miss, but two-time PGA Tour winner Michael Thompson probably had the best assessment of the situation.
"What a harsh lesson to learn. I pray Justin becomes a wiser pro because of that. There’s a reason we PGA Tour pros take so much time over tap ins. It’s so easy to make a mistake. #everyshotcounts"