Peter Malnati is one of us. The PGA Tour pro managed to encapsulate the full range of golfing emotions from despair at the maddening difficulty to those moments of addictive joy that keep us coming back for more – in just one hole.
And he summed it pretty sweetly as well when he proclaimed with a wry smile that “golf sucks” despite him just holing out from 177 yards.
The problem being that Malnati had just made a complete mess of the fourth hole in the first round of the Black Desert Championship with some classic left-right army golf.
An opening tee shot carved way right into the lava rocks – followed by the re-load being tugged equally as badly way off to the left. That meant a dreaded five off the tee, the lowest of low positions to be in on the golf course.
As many a hacker will tell you though, golf has a habit if playing with your emotions, cruelly inflicting blow after blow on your fragile game but then just as you’re ready to give up it reels you back in.
It’s an abusive sporting relationship when you think about it, but at least Malnati ended up smiling as he smashed away his drive at the fourth for a third time – and third time being a charm he found the middle of the fairway.
Then, as reward for sticking to it, the golfing gods saw to it that his approach from 177 yards landed, hit the breaks and went into reverse, tumbling down the slope on the green and rattling into the bottom of the cup.
What a way to make a double-bogey six, and such a crazy hole left Malnati battered, bruised, bemused but ultimately chuckling as he exchanged sheepish fist bumps from his playing partners.
“Golf sucks so bad, that is the stupidest…” Malnati was heard saying on the PGA Tour TV coverage. “Nice double!”
It was more than a nice double though, it was a six of epic proportions, and one that managed to capture all of the emotions you usually go through in a round all in one hole. It’s well worth a watch.
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