There isn’t much that can top golf’s holy grail, the hole-in-one, but on Friday at the U.S. Open, Francesco Molinari posted one of the most epic aces in major championship history.
Pinehurst No. 2 was showing plenty of teeth in Round 2, with the projected cut climbing all the way to five over par. Molinari, the 2018 Open champion, was on the wrong side of that number when he stepped up to the tee on the par-3 9th hole, his last of the day.
After firing an opening round of 73 on Thursday, Molinari needed a steady round on Friday to ensure he’d stick around for the weekend. But bogeys on 15, 16, 2, 3 and 8 were mitigated by only one birdie, on No. 1. With one hole remaining, Molinari was four over for the round and seven over for the tournament. It was looking like he’d be making an early exit — and miss his fifth consecutive cut in a major championship.
But then came a plot twist.
Molinari’s 7-iron landed on the left side of the green and took a nice bounce. Then, it started rolling toward the hole. It kept going, and going, curving more toward the hole, where it dropped directly in at last. (You can watch Molinari’s shot and reaction in the clip above.)
How’s that for a closing hole at the U.S. Open?
Molinari looked like he couldn’t believe it, putting his hands on his knees in shock. The ace brought him to five over par for the championship — right on the cutline.
According to the broadcast, since at least 2003, the start of Shotlink statistics, no player has made the cut on the number with a hole-in-one.
Thanks to that perfectly-placed 7-iron, Molinari will enjoy a weekend tee time at Pinehurst, and his first made cut at a major since the 2022 Open Championship, where he finished T15.
