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After Jordan Spieth’s ball practically abutted his accomplice’s Sunday, he was left with a nasty lie.
PGA Tour
There are dangerous breaks, just like the couple of divot holes and plugged bunker lie that Jordan Spieth encountered in the decisive moments of The Sentry on Sunday.
After which are actually dangerous breaks, like what occurred to Spieth at the start of that unlucky stretch, on the par-5 fifteenth gap on the Plantation Course at Kapalua.
Maybe you caught it on the telecast: After Spieth and his enjoying accomplice, Harris English, had blasted their tee pictures down the precise facet of the outlet’s steeply sloping fairway, they found their balls had come to relaxation facet by facet in the identical divot gap within the tough, with lower than an inch separating the 2 orbs.
English’s ball was marginally farther from the outlet, so he was away. To present English room to function, Spieth marked his personal ball then moved his marker one club-length away. Hassle was, when English ripped his second shot — from somewhat over 200 yards — he additionally ripped out but extra turf from the present divot gap.
Because the Tour defined, “Jordan’s authentic lie was barely altered, so he positioned his ball within the nearest most related lie, which was throughout the similar divot.”
The identical divot, yeah, however solely kinda-sorta the identical given English’s landscaping job.
“Yeah, I used to be sort of in a double divot,” Spieth mentioned later. “I needed to place it into his divot, so it was even deeper.”
When golf fingers you lemons, although, what are you able to do however bear down, knock your second shot by way of the inexperienced after which get up-and-down for a gritty birdie? Or, at the least, that’s what Spieth did. However then got here the fried-egg lie on 16 (and a bogey) and one other drive right into a divot gap on 17 (par) adopted by a closing birdie, which moved Spieth to 27 underneath for the week. A tidy effort, to make certain, however in the end two shy of winner Chris Kirk’s complete.
To his credit score, Spieth didn’t bemoan his unfortunate lies, not even the depraved double divot. “They had been balls that hit within the fairway and funneled into it,” he mentioned. “Out right here balls funnel into the identical spots lots, it’s not unusual to be in divots. It sort of stunk that it was three holes in a row, however the plug is what value me a full shot. I nonetheless performed the others simply fantastic.”
Nonetheless, discovering a number of divot holes in such a brief stretch felt like particularly dangerous fortune, even at a course the place balls are inclined to bunch. Which bought us pondering: What are the chances of a Tour professional discovering a crater, be it sand-filled or not? The course, gap and area dimension all affect the chance, in fact, however for professionals who make, say, 25 begins a yr, how might divot holes can they will anticipate finding? The Tour doesn’t observe such issues (word to ShotLink: we’d like to see a Strokes Gained: Divot Gap Restoration stat), so we resorted to some old-fashion polling.
John Wooden, the previous Tour caddie turned NBC roving reporter, estimated professionals discover these lies as soon as each couple of tournaments. “Perhaps 8 rounds?” he wrote by textual content, including, “Only a guesstimate.”
A former Tour professional I queried Tuesday believed the occurrences to be much less frequent. “Virtually all programs haven’t any divots at the start of the week,” he wrote in a textual content. “They fill the divots on the finish of every spherical. It’s uncommon that you find yourself in any divots.” He additionally identified that PGA Tour professionals hit, on common, solely 6 in 10 fairways, so a lot of drives don’t actually have a likelihood to seek out such a lie.
Attempt telling that to Spieth.
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