Highlights
This might be the slowest-developing hole-in-one in golf history
It was a rough two days overall for Thriston Lawrence at the Italian Open, but at least his appearance contained one glorious—albeit, meandering—20-second highlight.
That's our unofficial time of what has to be one of the slowest-developing holes-in-one in golf history. Lawrence aced Marco Simone Golf Club's par-3 seventh hole on Friday and it took his golf ball that long to get all the way back to a back pin some 242 yards from the tee.
Check it out as Lawrence's tee shot lands in the middle of the green and just crests a ridge. It then takes a slowwww journey down the slope before eventually finding the bottom of the cup for the three-time DP World Tour winner.
As you can see in the clip, Lawrence, who had a rough day otherwise (five-over 76) at the future Ryder Cup venue had long stopped watching when the crowd erupted. Pretty wild.
We're sure this 20 seconds can be topped, but for comparison, we looked at some of the aces made at Augusta National's 16th hole with the traditional Sunday pin that golf balls funnel to. Stewart Cink's from 2020 takes an eternity as well, but we have it clocking in at a slightly quicker 19 seconds:
In any event, an ace is an ace, and we're sure Thriston will take it (as well as a new car). He just might not enjoy picking up tonight's bar tab—especially after missing the cut.
UPDATE: Thanks to @Zippy_TMS on Twitter for alerting us to this wild ace from Fuzzy Zoeller at the 2006 Principal Charity Classic:
We've got that one at 28 seconds, including nearly 10 seconds where Fuzzy's golf ball seemingly came to rest on the fringe. Amazing. OK, so this is the slowest-developing hole-in-one in golf history. At least, until someone on social media remembers something else.