Whoops!

Past U.S. Open champ accidentally hits ball with practice swing, gets a good chuckle out of it

July 22, 2021

Michael Campbell is one of the few people who can say he held off Tiger Woods at a major championship. But that doesn't mean he isn't prone to creating a major blooper as well.

On Thursday at the Senior British Open, the 2005 U.S. Open winner accidentally hit his golf ball with a practice swing. Yep, pros are capable of doing this too. Thanks to Michael Verity for sharing the funny clip on Twitter:

Whoops. And yes, somewhere, Zach Johnson—a reference to his similar gaffe at the 2019 Masters—is smiling.

For those of you who aren't aware, since the ball hadn't been put into play yet on the hole there is no penalty for doing this, and Campbell was able to re-tee. So that annoying guy you play with that always yells, "That's one!" when someone in your group accidentally knocks his/her ball off the tee is wrong. And annoying.

As you can see, Campbell had a good chuckle over it when it happened, probably in part because he knew there was no harm, no foul. The eight-time European Tour winner also confirmed after his round that he knew this from experience:

Unfortunately, there weren't too many other funny moments for the 52-year-old during an opening a five-over-par 75 at Sunningdale that left him 10 shots off the lead shared by Darren Clarke and James Kingston. In any event, if you ever find yourself on a tee box with Michael, keep your head on a swivel.