No matter where his long-term focus lies, John Peterson showed that he is still susceptible to golf’s day-to-day frustrations when he snapped his putter over his knee on the 15th hole on Thursday. Peterson has been in and out of headlines all year as he teeters on the edge of PGA Tour status and has made his intentions clear: if he loses his status, he will retire at age 29.
“Don’t care either way bud. I hate the tour life. Not how it looks from the outside,” he wrote to one fan on Twitter earlier in the season.
Peterson is playing the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship this week, the first of four Web.com Finals events. Twenty-five pros will earn their cards at the conclusion of the four events. “Gonna give this pro golf tour deal one last push,” Peterson wrote in the leadup to the event. He teed on on No. 10 on Thursday, and it didn’t take long for to betray him. According to his scorecard, Peterson three-putted 11 and 13 and missed a par putt at 14. He missed two putts at No. 15, too, before holing his third effort from five feet.
Peterson plucked his ball from the hole and slowly stalked towards his bag before deciding to take action: he took his putter to the front of his knee, just above the shin, and snapped it in two. “Most crisp break of all time,” Peterson tweeted later.
the evidence is mounting that John Peterson does in fact care about golf pic.twitter.com/mUL455pWiq
— Dylan Dethier (@dylan_dethier) August 24, 2018
With 12 holes remaining, Peterson turned to his wedge and found greater success. He made two-putt pars on 16, 17 and 18 using the belly of the wedge. “Should’ve seen how nice I rolled it after that with the 52 degree,” Peterson tweeted. He finished his round very respectably, notching three one-putts and not a single two-putt with the wedge. He finished with a first-round four-over 75.
