On Friday morning, MJ Daffue was going low and no shot was too daring — not even the one he hit off the hospitality platform.
Daffue, 33, started the day one off the U.S. Open lead but jumped ahead with a three-under 32 on the front nine. Even after he bogeyed the 11th, he still sat at five under and led the rest of the field by two.
And then his day went from good to must-see TV on the par-5 14th. Daffue hooked his drive and missed the fairway, and his ball somehow came to rest on top of a spectator pavilion. He liked the flat lie and angle, so he elected to play it. Apparently the row of spectators, massive tree to his left or guard railing to his right — all of which framed a tiny window for an exit — didn’t bother him.
To make matters even more bold, he hit a 4-wood. And boy, did he pull the shot off.
Daffue blasted the wood 294 yards off the spectator pavilion, threading the needle and nearly finding the green.
“It couldn’t be in a better spot guys,” said Arron Oberholser, the on-course reporter, filling in the viewers on the broadcast. “It’s just past the bunker, in the rough, pretty decent lie to almost a good lie, all the green in the world to work with up the hill. I mean, I couldn’t believe he carried that big tree at the top of the hill.”
The bad news is Daffue chunked his chip — which we’ve seen happen often in The Country Club’s thick rough — and couldn’t get up and down from there and made bogey. The lead dropped to one, but Daffue gets an A for creativity.
You can track the second round here.
