not too shabby
Viktor Hovland botches bunker shot, saves par with miraculous Memorial hole out
There’s a recurring bit here at Golf Digest that the pros are just like us. Obviously, they’re not. Just watch us drive the ball once, and you’ll know that. But it’s still nice to see the best golfers in the world botch a shot or two, so we can feel better about ourselves.
World No. 5 Viktor Hovland attempted to pull one of those “just like us” moments on Thursday at Jack's Place, but there’s a reason why he’s the defending Memorial champ and we’re not. The Norwegian followed up his “brutal” bunker botch with something a bit better. For a split-second, he was one of us and then the world righted itself.
On Muirfield Village's par-3 No. 12, Hov found himself at the very edge of the sand trap beside the green. He plunked the ball up in the air only to watch it roll back even further into the trap. He then followed that up with a hole-out, because … he’s good at golf.
Hovland went as far as to give fans a Michael Jordan-esque shrug and then follow unlikely par save with two straight birdies, finishing his first round at The Memorial with a three-under 69.
Good golfers may have a bad shot or two, but they’ll eventually figure things out. The rest of us, well, you know how it goes.