Cruel And Unusual

Scottie Scheffler's perfect tee shot at 16 getting gusted off the green is the most painful video you'll watch all year

February 10, 2023

SCOTTSDALE — The wind howled at times on Thursday and Friday at TPC Scottsdale, dialing up the difficulty level to an 11 on an already tricky golf course. Nowhere has that been more evident than inside the Coliseum at the 16th hole, where balls got gusted so hard to the right on Thursday that fans in the first row of the grandstands were attempting to catch them.

It didn't exactly subside on Friday, at least not in the earlier part of the second round, which began a little after 9 a.m. MT. Scottie Scheffler, who finished off a first-round 68 on Friday morning and then went right back to the 10th tee to begin Round 2, found this out in a particularly excruciating way at the iconic par 3. 

Already at one under on his round, Scheffler played a legitimately great shot at No. 16, holding his hands through the finish to exaggerate a cut with a helping left-to-right wind. His ball landed about 20 feet left of the pin, then spun hard back to the hole, seemingly feeding back to tap-in range. 

Then it kept rolling ... and rolling ... and rolling ... and rolling some more. In one of the most painful videos you'll see this season, watch as Scheffler's tee shot goes from an easy birdie to off the green, which yielded a huge roar that turned into a smattering of boos. Only at the 16th would such a sentence make sense:

Unbelievably unfair. The only thing more obscene to happen at the 16th on Friday was that guy pole dancing with the flag stick in a speedo

Scheffler couldn't believe it. 

"It landed four paces left of the pin and was cutting," he said afterward. "It should have been probably six feet on left side of the hole. It ended up being like 20 feet off the green. It was weird. Tough break."

The World No. 2 couldn't believe the boos, either. 

"My ball flew into the green kind of funny to where I could tell something was happening up there," Scheffler said. "Then the flags started whipping. Then all of a sudden my ball started going and people started booing me, which I didn't appreciate too much. It was a pretty good shot to be getting booed, but it happens."

It wound up being no harm, no foul, Scheffler saving a par with ease and then getting to work from there. He proceeded to make four consecutive birdies, then played his final seven holes in two under to finish with a seven-under 64. The defending champion remains alone at the top at 10 under, and it should have been 11 if not for that gargantuan gust.