Grayson Murray hit his ball 303 yards on the 15th hole at Memorial Park Golf Course.
The 110-yard 15th hole.
He didn’t hit it past the hole. This isn’t a story about the long game. He hit it right of the hole. Then left of the hole. Then right of the hole. Then left of the hole. Then right of the hole. Then short of the hole. Then left of the hole. Then in the hole. This is a story about the short game.
Stroke one. Murray hits his tee shot pin high to the right on the 15th during Thursday’s first round of the Houston Open.
Stroke two. Birdie opportunity. Murray hits his shot, from 43 feet, 10 inches away from the hole, 36 yards and over the green, to the left of the hole.
Stroke three. Par opportunity. Murray hits his shot, from 64-8 away, 52 yards and back over the green, to the right again.
Stroke four. Bogey opportunity. Murray hits his shot, from 92-3 away, 53 yards and back over the green, to the left again
Stroke five. Double-bogey opportunity. Murray hits his shot, from 66-3 away, 34 yards and back over the green, to the right again.
Stroke six. Triple-bogey opportunity. Murray hits his shot, from 37-6 away, 24 feet, 11 inches – and onto the green. Whew. Two more to go.
Stroke seven. Quadruple-bogey opportunity. Murray rolls his putt, from 12-9 away, about a yard past the hole.
Stroke eight. Quintuple-bogey opportunity. In. Just over 300 yards worth of shots. No penalties.
The PGA Tour’s TourCast tracing of the shots around the green looked as if he had laced up a shoe. In that vein, Murray appeared on Twitter afterward to take it in stride, even with the quint being among nine scores of bogey or worse as part of a 15-over 85.
“I missed my putt on shot 7 and tapped in for 8,” Murray wrote in response to a tweet that asked what happened, calling to mind the old Seve Ballesteros line, when he was asked to explain a four-putt at the Masters: “I miss, I miss, I miss, I make,” he said.
