Here Comes The Putter Flip ...
U.S. Open 2024: Billy Horschel's failed putter flip is the sneaky-best moment of the week so far
The greens are so rock hard this week at Pinehurst No. 2 that you have to wonder if balls are even making pitch marks on approach shots. Billy Horschel still managed to make a rather large mark on one of the greens Thursday, and it wasn't from his golf ball.
The eight-time PGA Tour winner actually made a dent in the green with his putter, but it's not what it sounds like. It was an accident. Sort of.
Horschel, one of the better putters on the PGA Tour, has been known to flip his putter in the air like a baton when he just narrowly misses one. Almost always, he catches it on the way back down. It's quite impressive, actually. Except when he doesn't catch it:
Cannot. Stop. Watching. The height he gets on that thing, the fact it has fangs and takes a chunk out of the green, and the fact he has to break out the divot repair tool in shame. If you're breaking out the divot tool for anything other than your own pitch mark or someone else's, you know something has gone very, very wrong.
Credit to Billy for making the quick fix, and even more credit to him for the way he's bounced back on Friday after a three-over start. Horschel had gotten it to three under for the round, even par for the championship, before bogeying the par-4 16th. With two holes remaining he's currently at one over overall, safely inside the cut line. Hopefully, if and when he does get to the weekend, that flat stick remains firmly in his hands.
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