Run Out of Luck
Cinderella qualifier gets robbed of hole-in-one by brutal lip-out at Omega European Masters
This year, the Omega European Masters did something fascinating. Some might call it a gimmick, others the future, but in the end it yielded a heck of a highlight. In advance of the OEM, organizers held a simulator-golf qualifying tournament. They recreated the Seve Ballesteros-designed Golf Club de Crans-sur-Sierre in exacting virtual detail and invited hopeful players to test their skill. The top three finishers then faced off in a single-round elimination tournament on the actual course on Tuesday. When the bell rung, Swiss PGA pro Benjamin Purshouse qualified for the big show.
But the law of averages comes for every golfer, and Purshouse felt that sting more than most on Thursday. After his unlikely qualification, the Purshouse got the other side of lady luck’s hand during his opening round when he fired one right at the pin on the par-3 13th just to watch it do this …
It honestly doesn’t get much more brutal than that. If that had gone down, it would have been the Swiss equivalent of Michael Block’s ace at Oak Hill. Alas, gravity, physics, weather and sheer dumb luck conspired to rob Purshouse of a memory to last a lifetime. Say what you want about legitimacy (or illegitimacy) of simulator golf, but one thing is certain:
They hurt more in real life.