There are many drivable par-4s on the PGA Tour, but there has only ever been one hole-in-one on a two-shotter.
On Sunday at the Players Championship, Max Homa made a thrilling run at recording the second.
With the tees moved to the forward box for the second-straight day on the par-4 12th, just two players (as of this writing) chose to lay up in the final round. Homa took dead aim with driver from 307 yards.
His tee shot cut back toward the flag and ended up striking it on the fly. With water looming just a few yards left of the green, an unlucky bounce off the stick could have been detrimental to Homa, who was was coming off an eagle at 11 and charging up the leaderboard after starting the final round nine back.
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But instead of careening all the way to the water, Homa’s ball was muffled by the flag, and it kicked left and trickled over the edge of the green, settling in the collar of rough.
Had Homa’s his tee shot not hit the stick, it likely would have run the green and left a much more difficult pitch.
Instead, Homa was able to knock the relatively simple uphill chip to a few feet and brush in the birdie putt to get to 10 under, moving him to four off Scottie Scheffler’s lead at the time.
“It was cool as hell,” Homa said after his round. “I’ve never hit a pin from 307. So that was sweet. I mean, it would have been nice if it went in but, I mean, I didn’t really look at it as a bad break.”
Homa picked up another stroke when Scheffler bogeyed the third hole shortly thereafter, but that was as close as Homa got. He didn’t make another birdie the rest of the round and hit his tee shot on the par-3 17th in the water.
That led to a double-bogey, and Homa finished with a 69 to leave him at eight under.