Adam Long lifted his head up, then looked back down. He raised his head again, then moved it slowly right. On each, he was following the direction of his golf ball, and neither was ideal.
On the positive side during Friday’s second round at the Honda Classic, Long started the 443-yard, par-4 11th at PGA National with a 294-yard drive down the right side of the fairway. And he completed it with a 15-inch tap-in. But then there is also the in between:
— On Long’s second stroke, from 148 yards out, he found the water, though his ball was about a foot short of the upslope toward the green, and 26 feet from the hole.
— Before Long’s third stroke, he took off his shoes and socks and rolled up the legs of his black pants. He was going to hit. Long choked down on an iron. He tried to take a stance in the water. At one point, his caddie, Matt Erwin, moved down the slope, squatted, went over the shot with his player and then backed away.
“How about this one — open face, calf high, in the water, the ball just barely peeking out of …? Can he do this?” announcer Ned Michaels said on the PGA Tour Live broadcast.
“The key to this shot: You almost have to hit it fat,” analyst Billy Kratzert said. “Don’t try to hit the ball. Try to hit just like a bunker shot.”
Long hit it nowhere. He lifted his head up, then looked back down. There was a splash. Erwin, his caddie, walked over, and Long cleaned his club off with a towel.
— On Long’s fourth stroke, he tried again from the water. This time, there was no splash, and the ball popped out, but it dropped a few feet onto the upslope and rolled back in. Long raised his head again, then moved it slowly right. He walked out of the water.
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“Oh, no,” Michaels said on the broadcast, after Long hit. “Don’t roll backwards, ball.”
— On Long’s fifth stroke, he took a penalty, and he played from where he hit his second shot. Since his ball never cleared the penalty area on strokes three and four, he was allowed to do this, under rule 17.2.
— On Long’s sixth stroke, he hit to 6 feet. There was no water this time.
— On Long’s seventh stroke, he missed his triple-bogey putt.
And he tapped in for a quadruple-bogey eight. He had started the hole at even par for the tournament, and in a tie for 53rd. He left it at four-over and tied for 121st, a drop of 68 spots.
“Was it worth the risk, even if he had gotten it out?” Michaels asked on the broadcast.
“Well, you’re just trying to make no more than five,” Kratzert said. “To attempt that shot, you’re trying to make no more than five.”
