In bizarre sequence, pro follows terrible break with ace

The golf gods giveth and they taketh away. Anyone who plays the game knows it to be fickle. One minute, the fates smile kindly on us, only to darken with our very next swing moments later.

Such dramatic highs and lows don’t just strike at the amateur level, though, with Tour pros experiencing them, too.

As evidence, consider the wild sequence of events involving Hayden Buckley during Friday’s second round of the 3M Open at TPC Twin Cities.

In what had already been a volatile day for Buckley — marked by two double-bogeys and two birdies on his front nine — the 28-year-old pro arrived at the 407-yard 16th hole in a less-than-buoyant mood.

He was eight over for the tournament, and his poor outing was about to get worse.

After a flared drive on the par-4 left him in a hazard area along the water, Buckley tried hacking out — but the golf gods were having none of it. Buckley’s ball caromed off a red stake just in front of him and ricocheted into the drink, prompting the frustrated Buckley to pull the stake out of the ground and slam it down. He went on to make a 6 on the hole. His round was drawing to a close, but fate wasn’t done messing with him.

Next up for Buckley was the par-3 17th, playing 178 yards over water. With a logjam on the tee, Buckley had to weather a 20-minute wait. 

“It’s never fun waiting when you’re playing awful,” he said.

But his spirits were about to brighten. Taking dead aim, Buckley jarred his tee shot for an ace, his frustration giving way to high fives.

For good measure, Buckley followed up his hole-in-one with a birdie on 18, but it was too little, too late. He missed the cut, repeating what he’d done at the 2023 Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass, where he aced the island-green 17th but also failed to make the weekend.

“I need to figure out this whole hole-in-one and make cut thing,” Buckley said.

Figuring out the golf gods might take longer.

“Weird things happen in this game,” Buckley quipped.

Josh Sens

Golf.com Editor

A golf, food and travel writer, Josh Sens has been a GOLF Magazine contributor since 2004 and now contributes across all of GOLF’s platforms. His work has been anthologized in The Best American Sportswriting. He is also the co-author, with Sammy Hagar, of Are We Having Any Fun Yet: the Cooking and Partying Handbook.

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