Thomas teed off Saturday on the 158-yard, par-3 13th hole at Olympia Fields Country Club just outside of Chicago. He was even-par for his third round at the BMW Championship and 7-over for the tournament. About three seconds after he swung, with the ball yet to land, Thomas believed he had it.
“That’s got to be one of the worst golf shots ever hit in the history of the sport,” Thomas murmured.
One of the commercials being played during the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoffs declares, “History will be made here.” Thomas had made his pitch.
His ball landed on the green. 57 feet, 4 inches from the hole.
When you blow up a shot a little, you blow things alittle out of proportion. The shot may or may not have been one of the worst ever. But Thomas’ assessment was one of the best.
“Justin not happy there with that tee shot,” one of the announcers on the broadcast said.
“He said it was one of the worst shots in the history of golf. Not quite,” another announcer said.
Thomas came up 3 feet short on his birdie putt. (“This would be apropos if it went in, wouldn’t it, after what he said on the tee?” the first announcer said.) He slid the par putt 2 feet past the hole to the right. He three-putted for bogey.
Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for editing, writing and developing stories across the golf space. And when he’s not writing about ways to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short, and drinking a cold beer to wash away his score. You can reach out to him about any of these topics — his stories, his game or his beers — at nick.piastowski@golf.com.