Ben An’s ball went up, then rolled back down to him.
Then Ben An’s ball went up again, then rolled back down to him again.
Then Ben An’s ball went up again, then rolled back down to him again.
Then he fell.
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In a disastrous sequence during Saturday’s Sony Open third round, An started the 356-yard, par-4 10th at Waialae Country Club one shot behind the leaders and tied for fourth, and he exited it five back and in 28th place. In between, he had taken eight strokes, including seven after a drive that put him 87 yards out.
“Oh, what a mess,” analyst Paul Azinger said on the NBC broadcast. “Simple, simple hole.”
Indeed. And things began well enough, too; An’s tee ball found the right side of the fairway, and he was just those 87 yards out. But disaster struck as An continued to miss.
Stroke two flew the green some 15 yards.
Stroke three was a flopped flop. An hit his ball skyward, it caught just the fringe of the green, and it rolled back down a slope, finishing parallel and to the right of where he hit. And this repeated.
Stroke four was a flopped flop. An hit his ball skyward, it caught just the fringe of the green, and it rolled back down a slope, finishing parallel and to the right of where he hit. And this repeated.
Stroke five was a flopped flop. An hit his ball skyward, it caught just the fringe of the green, and it rolled back down a slope, finishing parallel and to the right of where he hit. If you’re keeping score, that’s three swings and three misses.
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On his sixth stroke, An bumped his ball into the upslope of the green, and it rolled 7 feet past the hole.
Whew.
“Well, he’s really trying to end his chances almost here and spend a lot of money,” Azinger said on the broadcast.
“He came to this hole, Zing, he played the first nine five-under,” announcer Dan Hicks said. “He was right there, one back. Oh, man.”
From there, An missed his putt for triple bogey, and he tapped in for quad. Admirably, there was no blowup; the social-media friendly pro just handed his putter and ball to caddie Justin York and walked to the 11th tee.
“When he finally got it up on the green surface, Zing, he decided to play it a little bit more direct,” Hicks said on the broadcast. “He was going for that big, hero flop shot.”
“You know, when you’re out here trying to play trick shots, there’s a way to hit that flop and not be quite as risky,” Azinger said. “And that is one ugly eight. The snowman paid him a visit here in Hawaii.”
