It’s not every day you see a Tour pro hit a 56-yard tee shot, but in Ashun Wu’s case the shot that followed his bunt of a drive was even more bizarre still.
The setting: the second round of the DP World Tour’s Open de España, at Club de Campo Villa, in Madrid, earlier this week. The hole: the par-4, 448-yard 16th. When Wu — a 37-year-old pro from China — arrived on the tee, he was already having an adventurous round, carding five birdies on the front side for a three-under 33 before giving four of those strokes back with consecutive double-bogeys on 12 and 13.
Wu’s wackiness on 16 began when his tee shot clipped an overhanging branch and dropped straight down into some juicy rough.
“He’s got a terrible lie,” said one of the commentators. “He’ll be doing good to even reach the fairway.”
Fairway? Um, yeah, not happening. Wu’s lie was so bad that his only option was to pitch his ball to the members’ tee box less than 40 yards ahead of him — no easy shot itself given the tee was well above Wu (he had to jump to see it) and about the size of a small patio.
But Wu played it to perfection, his ball coming to rest in the middle of the tee.
“I tell you what,” said another announcer, “that was some shot to get it on the tee. My goodness me. I’ve never seen that in all of the 11 events that we’ve played here. Never seen that — and I tell you what, that’s one of his best shots of the day to get it on that tee.”
“Well, it certainly is,” another announcer said. “That’s a tiny little target from a wicked lie.”
With his third shot (and second tee shot — well, sort of), Wu blasted a 3-wood more than 280 yards up the fairway. But his misadventures weren’t over yet. He advanced his next shot just 40 yards and well short of the green. From there, Wu managed to get up and down for a wild double-bogey 6. He eventually signed for a one-over 73.
The good news for Wu: the double on 16 proved to be his last of the week. In the third and fourth rounds in Madrid, Wu posted a pair of 68s to climb into a tie for 13th, 11 strokes back of the winner, Jon Rahm.
Wu has four career DP World Tour wins, his most recent coming in March at the Magical Kenya Open. He is ranked 219th in the world.
