Rasmus Højgaard, for 20 seconds, watched his ball. About halfway through, he pushed up the bill of his white hat with his left hand and scratched his head. Before creeping forward, he laughed, his cap still at an angle.
How best to describe this shot on the par-5 15th at Al Hamra Golf Club during Thursday’s first round of the DP World Tour’s Ras al Khaimah Championship?
Don’t look at Højgaard’s ball. Just look at Højgaard.
OK, OK, check out the shot, too. It was a push-up-your-hat-and-laugh kind of effort. From the native area left of the hole, from 242 yards out, Højgaard hit his second shot, the ball nearly struck a grass lip, it got no higher than 10 feet off the ground — and it finished 10 feet from the hole.
On a slowed-down replay, he appeared to have not caught not the bottom of the ball, and definitely not the middle, and nearly none of it.
“He nearly missed it,” an announcer on the Golf Channel broadcast said. “It was so close to fresh air. It was topped third-, even top-quarter of the ball.”
It was enough. From there, Højgaard’s ball rolled and rolled, onto the green and just left of the cup before finishing just past it. From there, he two-putted, his scorecard simply read “4,” and he finished the round with a three-under 69
“There aren’t too many that top it onto the green like that,” another announcer said on the broadcast. “Look at him. He’s amazed. Oh, that’s the way to play. That’s the future. You got to keep it down. Don’t let the wind deflect it. That was unreal.”
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“Wouldn’t that be something — a topped albatross?” another announcer said on the broadcast.
And what say you, Rasmus? As he was asked about it afterward, he again titled his hat up and itched his hair.
“I don’t really know,” said the 20-year-old from Denmark, who along with his twin brother, Nicolai, are already winners on the formerly named European Tour. “Um, I was a bit in between two clubs, and I went with the club I had to hit a little harder, and I didn’t quite time it so.
“It came off a little low off the face and it trickled all the way up to 10 feet for eagle so that’s a bit crazy.”
