If Sunday at the Players was anything, it was chaotic.
With Rory McIlroy holding the lead, a number of journeymen chasing him and one of the best stretches of holes on the entire Tour schedule, the tenseness surrounding what might come next was relentless.
That was until Alex Smalley stepped up to the 17th tee at the Stadium Course — then, finally, we got a moment of levity.
Smalley had fought admirably on the weekend, playing alongside McIlroy for every hole, fading from contention only on Sunday’s front nine. Smalley was eight under and four back when he reached 17, the famed par-3 with an island green. He had made three no-sweat pars there already, but there was nothing easy about what was coming.
For Sunday’s final round, the classic fourth-round hole location was in place — 13 paces from the front and just three off the right edge of the green. In other words, tucked right. Players try and hit a left-to-right shot that catches the slope and nuzzles down near the hole. Smalley’s shot didn’t move left to right.
Rather, it went straight. Really straight.
A straight ball on 17 leaves you praying for a soft bounce, because there’s some firm turf on the top part of that green. Smalley found it, sending his ball bounding forward, through the putting surface and the grassy collar. But Smalley had clipped his ball so tightly it spun hard enough to halt all forward progress on the wood planks that surrounds the green. The ball even zipped back up against the grassy collar, leaving everyone to wonder how it would be possible for Smalley to play a shot from there.
Until his ball started trickling…and trickling…and trickling some more.
Gravity had control of Smalley’s ball now, pushing it slowly from one plank to the next, like a marble rolling down a yardstick. Only boundless optimists could believe that it would stay dry.
Incredibly, the ball rolled across three different planks, nearly coming to a stop on the second one before gaining steam on the third and ultimately dropping into the water. Smalley’s face flashed across the broadcast, completely unfazed, moving on. (He would take relief in the drop zone, pitch on and two-putt for double bogey.) The groans from the gallery told you everything though. This was a shot you can really only appreciate once you’ve seen it.
Don’t just appreciate the video above. Scroll back up and check out the perfectly-timed Getty photo of the ball in the exact moment it walked the plank and dove into the water.
