Even after a night to sleep it off, this tour pro’s shank is simply gruesome

Taylor Montgomery is a talented PGA Tour rookie who we have every reason to believe will one day be a winner on tour. In his nine starts since earning his PGA Tour card off the Korn Ferry Tour last summer, he’s got four top-10s and eight top-15s, including a fifth-place showing on Sunday at The American Express.

However, that fifth in the California desert had the makings of something even better—like a first win. Through 15 holes on Sunday at PGA West in La Quinta, Calif., the 27-year-old from Las Vegas was seven under for his round and one shot off the lead. Then, on the 601-yard par-5 16th, he was just shy of the green in two and eyeing another birdie—if not better.

But that’s when the momentum began to wane. Montgomery didn’t hit his chip with enough authority, leaving himself a 12-foot birdie try. And then he missed that, his par feeling a lot more like a bogey.

OK, so now Montgomery stepped to the par-3 17th tee knowing he probably needed a late birdie to have a true chance at victory. And that’s when, well, “this" happened.

We don’t throw around the “s-word” casually. But how else are you supposed to describe this painful sight?

Searches Golf Twitter, finds hosel rocket, atomic blunder, left-to-right missle crash. Wow … we didn’t realize how creative you all were.

Montgomery re-teed and hit his third to six feet, but failed to convert the bogey effort, dousing entirely his hopes of a career breakthrough.

To his credit, he didn’t let his misery carry over to the final hole, making a birdie from 18 feet to finish with a six-under 66 for the round and 24 under for the tournament. But we can only hope when he awoke on Monday morning, he had begun the healing process already. Because the image of … well … "that" is going to take some time to forget.