Pro hit with 2 penalties, records a 10 — then officials go to record books

He hit his tee shot to what an online scoreboard termed as “unknown.” He reloaded. And hit into the water. Stroke five nearly went into a creek. Stroke six was a punch-out to the left. Four shots later, C.T. Pan marked himself down for a 10. 

And all that helped him make history. 

In a tweet a day after his curious accomplishment, Pan said it “sums up my love and hate relationship with golf,” and that summed it up well. 

Hate? That’s the quintuple bogey. No one likes those. But you and Pan have to love what went down next at Muirfield Village. After the 10 on the 589-yard, par-5 11th, Pan signed for a four-over 76 during Thursday’s first round of the Memorial, shot a four-under Friday, made the cut — and became the first Tour player since 1997 to record a 10 and reach the weekend, according to stats guru Justin Ray and the Tour. 

So yes, love and hate. 

To pull it off, you need the 10, of course. But you also can’t play too poorly before or after. You need a cushion for your crash. In Pan’s case, he had been three-under for his round heading into the 11th. From there, he finished Thursday with three bogeys and a birdie, then made six birdies on Friday — including one on the 11th — and he made the cut by two shots. 

Twenty-five years ago, John Huston also took a 10 on a par-5. And his quintuple-bogey-to-the-weekend effort has fun footnotes.

According to a Los Angeles Times story, Huston hit his third shot on the 13th at Augusta National into the water ahead of the green. Then he was wet again. Huston nearly knocked a third ball in during the second round of the Masters and finished with his 10. A day earlier, notably, he holed out from 190 yards on 18 to take a one-stroke first-round lead. 

Two days later, Huston finished tied for 21st. And Tiger Woods won his first major.  

• c.t. pan
• the memorial tournament

Nick Piastowski

Golf.com Editor

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.

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