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Long-Iron Digest

This Rory McIlroy 3-iron “flop shot” is somehow only his second craziest shot of the week

Chances are you’ve seen number one. So has your mom, dad, aunt, uncle, priest, rabbi, bartender, butcher, baker, and bookie. When you close your eyes to sleep at night, you’re still seeing visions of Rory bunker in the bunker to the right of Augusta National’s 18th green, twirling like Judy Garland in ‘The Sound of Music.’ Don't worry, your doctor says that's normal. They've seen it too.

So that’s number-one. Number two—this mystery number two we’ve been teasing since the jump—comes courtesy of the DP World Tour, which pitted McIlroy and Viktor Hovland against each other in a new edition of the 14 Club Challenge at the Dubai Desert Classic back in January. You can check out the whole video here.

It’s good stuff across the board, but as always things get more interesting when the clubs start to dwindle (once one player uses a club, both players lose it), in this case with McIlroy eventually needing to land and hold a 3-iron on a 155-yard par 3. Impossible? Not in Rory’s hands.

Absolutely audacious. In fairness, this is how most of the planet hits their 3-iron, but it’s different when you’re trying to hit it this way. So kudos to Rory. Two viral, physics-defying shots in one week is pretty nice … though we bet a green jacket would have been even nicer.