Worst 72nd hole choke

[Blaiser]

1 minute ago, aenemated said:

 

It *IS* a hard hole but it's worth mentioning how absolutely horrific Mito's swing was. Before it even showed where the ball was going I was like "WTF just happened?" 

 

 

Definitely a funky looking swing, but maybe that's something he practices and has been doing for years? Could very well be his "absolutely have to hit a fairway" swing and it just failed him this time.

 

Patrick Reed and Scottie Scheffler both won green jackets with some really funky looking swings on certain tees. 

 

Just saying he's probably comfortable with it. I really doubt he waited for the 72nd hole at a major to try that for the first time.

[TiScape]

4 hours ago, me05501 said:

This may sound half-baked, but I think Mito might have been influenced by the idiot behind the tee who was yelling at all the players to HAMMER THE DRIVER!

 

He was so obnoxious over the last hour or so of the tournament. I can't imagine why he wasn't ejected (maybe was there representing a sponsor).  

 

More experienced players like JT can put that kind of stuff completely out of their minds. But if you're ranked #100 in the world, leading your first major, playing kind of shaky golf, etc, and the last thing you hear before you pull a club is HAMMER THE DRIVER you might just talk yourself into it. 

Was the real issue the club selection or the execution of the shot??? Sure he should have hit less than driver. But with the awful swing he put on the ball pretty much any club longer than 4i ends up so far right he’s in trouble. At the bottom of the stream trouble? Maybe, maybe not. The second I saw that swing live I said to myself, what in the heck was that?!. Sawed off, no follow through…. I don’t remember the last time I saw a PGA Professional put a pass that bad on a ball with driver. Screamed nerves to me. I know your not the only one to comment on his choice to hit driver and I don’t mean to single you out. I just can’t look past that awful swing under pressure more than the club selection. Both were obviously very poor. 

[me05501]

2 minutes ago, TiScape said:

Was the real issue the club selection or the execution of the shot??? Sure he should have hit less than driver. But with the awful swing he put on the ball pretty much any club longer than 4i ends up so far right he’s in trouble. At the bottom of the stream trouble? Maybe, maybe not. The second I saw that swing live I said to myself, what in the heck was that?!. Sawed off, no follow through…. I don’t remember the last time I saw a PGA Professional put a pass that bad on a ball with driver. Screamed nerves to me. I know your not the only one to comment on his choice to hit driver and I don’t mean to single you out. I just can’t look past that awful swing under pressure more than the club selection. Both were obviously very poor. 

 

I agree, that wasn't a comfortable swing.

 

I assume a lot of his discomfort came from pressure and some maybe came from not being fully committed to the shot. In his interview with Amanda he said something like "When you feel that kind of pressure you don't even know what your body's going to do."

 

Seeing him back off the putt for 6 a few times seems to support that. 

 

 

[Wasted_Talent]

18 hours ago, mosesgolf said:

A good caddy would not let Mito hit driver on 18. 

 

 

What did you want him to hit on a 490 uphill par 4?

[mosesgolf]

WZ hit 3 wood regulation round and in the playoff.   

[Wasted_Talent]

With that last swing he made he would have hit anything in the water.

Edited May 23, 2022 by Gawbage_man

[Ty_Webb]

20 hours ago, mosesgolf said:

A good caddy would not let Mito hit driver on 18. 

 

 

 

 

3 wood bumps up your chances of hitting the fairway by about 2% and leaves you 30 yards further away. He hit the right club. He just hit a bad shot. 

[Tasals]

1 hour ago, mosesgolf said:

WZ hit 3 wood regulation round and in the playoff.   

he absolutely nuked it as well, but it put in him an awkward position on his approach shot on the playoff tho. That said, Will still had a birdie chance.

[hunterdog]

I guess Norman’s 1996  collapse wasn’t entirely on the 72d hole but seriously, it’s got to be one of the biggest meltdowns ever.

 

 And don’t forget Scott Hoch’s choke on the 72d at the 1989 Masters. Two foot putt to win, doesn’t touch the hole.

[ac6]

26 minutes ago, hunterdog said:

I guess Norman’s 1996  collapse wasn’t entirely on the 72d hole but seriously, it’s got to be one of the biggest meltdowns ever.

 

 And don’t forget Scott Hoch’s choke on the 72d at the 1989 Masters. Two foot putt to win, doesn’t touch the hole.

 

Can't collapse on the last hole if you already lost your entire 6 stroke lead after 12 🤷🏻‍♂️

[Shilgy]

32 minutes ago, hunterdog said:

I guess Norman’s 1996  collapse wasn’t entirely on the 72d hole but seriously, it’s got to be one of the biggest meltdowns ever.

 

 And don’t forget Scott Hoch’s choke on the 72d at the 1989 Masters. Two foot putt to win, doesn’t touch the hole.

Hoch’s was on 73rd….aka first hole of playoff.

 

Norman in ‘86 was an easy shot to push. 4 iron dead uphill/uphill lie.

 

Yes, it does happen but personally I abhor calling most of these chokes.  Easy for the armchair quarterbacks to say woulda/coulda/shoulda but golf, even at the highest level, is hard. So all this talk about “ALL he had to do” …was to make par this very difficult hole like the 18th at  Carnoustie or Southern Hills is ridiculous imo.

[jonsnow]

18 hours ago, tatertot said:

Fortunately for me, my ABC affiliate cut away for local programming before poor Jean teed off on 18. We didn't get to see it live.

If I'm not mistaken, the cut away was for coverage of the plane crash JFK Jr. died in. I remember Jean had a 3-shot lead, they cut away for the news update & when they returned to golf Jean was standing in the burn with his hands on his hips & I thought, "What the h**l has happened?" It was absolutely surreal.

[Socrates]

7 hours ago, ChrisL52188 said:

Phil Mickelson... And I enjoyed watching him play for a long time. 

 

Where was Bones that day? 

He was checking with his bank to see if Phil had paid him for the week before.

[chigolfer1]

7 hours ago, Blaiser said:

Definitely a funky looking swing, but maybe that's something he practices and has been doing for years? Could very well be his "absolutely have to hit a fairway" swing and it just failed him this time.

 

Patrick Reed and Scottie Scheffler both won green jackets with some really funky looking swings on certain tees. 

 

Just saying he's probably comfortable with it. I really doubt he waited for the 72nd hole at a major to try that for the first time.

 

that's what I said/asked in the other thread.    I would hope he was going for some shortened fairway finder swing that obviously didn't work.  if he was trying to make his "normal" swing then, yeah, that would be pretty crazy.

[Gdub17]

I’d go with that French dude in the open

Edited May 24, 2022 by Gdub17

[mosesgolf]

9 hours ago, Ty_Webb said:

 

 

 

3 wood bumps up your chances of hitting the fairway by about 2% and leaves you 30 yards further away. He hit the right club. He just hit a bad shot. 

Debatable that this doesn't apply to the best players in the world.   Mito hit a bad shot that was more likely with a driver.  Mito hits fairway or doesn't go into water with 3wd. Take your pick. 

 

Common denominator of Van DeVelde, Phil, Mito is they all hit driver.  

Edited May 24, 2022 by mosesgolf
Missed something

[elwhippy]

Van der Welde. Nobody else comes close. 

[iBanesto]

On 5/23/2022 at 10:11 AM, MtlJeff said:

 

I agree his second shot was probably the unluckiest break in the history of golf. But I just mean he could have played that hole 100 different ways. 

 

 

 

Agreed he was unlucky because Van de Velde's 2nd shot cleared the burn by a good margin. Then we can chip it around with his great short game for his 6 and win.

 

Also agreed he handle the loss better than any person could have done. In the 2nd video, I don't what more the US reporter wanted Van de Velde to say about the loss, he admitted he lost it and that's life. But the reporter kept pushing the magnitude of the loss. Classless.

 

 

 

Edited May 24, 2022 by iBanesto

[MattyO1984]

Has to be JVDV for me.

 

I get that some of the shots that he hit might have actually been not too bad and there was the unlucky break when it hit the grandstand but to me choking is not just doing something physical which is ridiculous it is also an inability to think properly and Van de Velde did not think through his approach to the last hole in any way what so ever. It's great finishing in style but it's better to finish with the trophy in your hand.

[Ty_Webb]

5 hours ago, mosesgolf said:

Debatable that this doesn't apply to the best players in the world.   Mito hit a bad shot that was more likely with a driver.  Mito hits fairway or doesn't go into water with 3wd. Take your pick. 

 

Common denominator of Van DeVelde, Phil, Mito is they all hit driver.  

 

JT hit driver on 18 in the playoff. Was that wrong too?

[bazinky]

Driver would have been clearly wrong if he had a 2 shot lead. However, he still needed to make par to win the tournament. Unless someone can show me some stats that guys hitting 3 wood off that tee made par more often than guys that hit driver, I don't think that club selection was the problem. He just hit a bad shot.

[JD3]

4 hours ago, iBanesto said:

 

Agreed he was unlucky because Van de Velde's 2nd shot cleared the burn by a good margin. Then we can chip it around with his great short game for his 6 and win.

 

Also agreed he handle the loss better than any person could have done. In the 2nd video, I don't what more the US reporter wanted Van de Velde to say about the loss, he admitted he lost it and that's life. But the reporter kept pushing the magnitude of the loss. Classless.

 

 

 

hitting it into stands on purpose is a pretty weird strategy. he had the middle of the fairway a hundred or so yards out if he wanted it. what pro wouldnt take that and 4 shots to get it up and down from 100ish yards out for the trophy? chokes usually manifest themselves as mental first, trust me ive been there.

 

true story: i needed par to win a reasonably high profile amateur tournaments years ago, after a nice drive i had 130 left from the right rough. the rough was wet due to rain, and I let that influence my choice of club in a weird way. instead of hitting a wedge (my normal club from that distance), or sand wedge factoring in potential for flyer, i tried coaxing a 6-iron up there ... my normal club from 175!! I hit it to the back of a large green, three putted from there, lost the hole to a par, and then lost the tournament on the first hole of sudden death.

[Klubster]

If it were me and I had a 1 shot lead with two to go, I would have laid up on 17 and 18, but pros have a lot more confidence (not to mention talent) than I do.  There was a lot that could go wrong on those holes.

[Ty_Webb]

18 minutes ago, JD3 said:

hitting it into stands on purpose is a pretty weird strategy. he had the middle of the fairway a hundred or so yards out if he wanted it. what pro wouldnt take that and 4 shots to get it up and down from 100ish yards out for the trophy? chokes usually manifest themselves as mental first, trust me ive been there.

 

true story: i needed par to win a reasonably high profile amateur tournaments years ago, after a nice drive i had 130 left from the right rough. the rough was wet due to rain, and I let that influence my choice of club in a weird way. instead of hitting a wedge (my normal club from that distance), or sand wedge factoring in potential for flyer, i tried coaxing a 6-iron up there ... my normal club from 175!! I hit it to the back of a large green, three putted from there, lost the hole to a par, and then lost the tournament on the first hole of sudden death.

 

If memory serves, the fairway was narrow there and sloping away from him with OB behind it. It was a tough layup. If he misses the layup left he's OB. If he misses it right he's in the junk with the burn in front of him (like where he actually ended up). If he hits it over the burn at the right edge of the green, then if he misses it right, it goes in the stand and there was a drop zone up by the green. If he hits it straight or left a bit it winds up on or around the green. He made the right decision and hit a decent shot. Then got hugely unlucky. 

[JD3]

1 minute ago, Ty_Webb said:

 

If memory serves, the fairway was narrow there and sloping away from him with OB behind it. It was a tough layup. If he misses the layup left he's OB. If he misses it right he's in the junk with the burn in front of him (like where he actually ended up). If he hits it over the burn at the right edge of the green, then if he misses it right, it goes in the stand and there was a drop zone up by the green. If he hits it straight or left a bit it winds up on or around the green. He made the right decision and hit a decent shot. Then got hugely unlucky. 

He had a perfect lie. A pair of wedges gets him a 5. 

[Ty_Webb]

3 minutes ago, Clubster said:

If it were me and I had a 1 shot lead with two to go, I would have laid up on 17 and 18, but pros have a lot more confidence (not to mention talent) than I do.  There was a lot that could go wrong on those holes.

 

To clarify - if you had a 1 shot lead and needed to make a par on a 490 yard uphill par 4, you would have laid up? You fancied your chances in a playoff against JT and Will Z? Because if you laid up, 5 becomes a good score. 4 is really tough. 17 I get, although if you can get it over the stream, then it probably maximizes your chances of making 3. Then maybe laying up on 18 makes sense with a 2 shot lead.

[Shilgy]

16 minutes ago, JD3 said:

He had a perfect lie. A pair of wedges gets him a 5. 

It was easier, and correct imo, to clear the burn with the second shot as it presented itself. As @Ty Webbnoted the layup was no….well it was not an easy layup.

Lets,put it this way…..without the post ricochet he would be being lauded for playing it “correctly “.

[isaacbm]

Some of the answers in this thread are strange to me. You’ve got a 490 yard uphill par 4. If he hits three wood and miss hits it even a little bit he’s going to have 250 yards in assuming that doesn’t end up in the water. I can’t think of a single player who wouldn’t hit driver on that hole. 
 

That second shot is an absolute beast. you want to be coming in with 5,6,7 if you can. Not hybrid! 
 

he didn’t choke on the decision making, he just choked on the swing. 
 

What Jean Vandervelde did was a combination of shockingly bad luck compiled by even worse decision making.

Hard not to put him in the top two of all time. The three shot lead  just seems like a wrap… 

 

I still think Monte had the worst choke. There was so much pressure on him to finally get the monkey off his back and win his first major. He hit  a perfect drive into the fairway and somehow made double bogey with 7-iron on a hole that had no water around the green. The guy was seven time European order of merit champion and hadn’t won a major still. This was to be his crowning achievement and he made double from 160 with a perfect lie. 
 

I don’t think Phil made double so much because he was nervous or choked, I think Phil is just a bit of a maniac. But Monte? That to me was the biggest choke I’ve ever seen. And I was rooting for him! 

[Wasted_Talent]

If he hits 3 wood and pulls it he is 240 out in deep rough.  If he pushes it he is also in the water.  That swing was not producing a good shot on the final tee.

[JD3]

21 minutes ago, isaacbm said:

Some of the answers in this thread are strange to me. You’ve got a 490 yard uphill par 4. If he hits three wood and miss hits it even a little bit he’s going to have 250 yards in assuming that doesn’t end up in the water. I can’t think of a single player who wouldn’t hit driver on that hole. 
 

That second shot is an absolute beast. you want to be coming in with 5,6,7 if you can. Not hybrid! 
 

he didn’t choke on the decision making, he just choked on the swing. 
 

What Jean Vandervelde did was a combination of shockingly bad luck compiled by even worse decision making.

Hard not to put him in the top two of all time. The three shot lead  just seems like a wrap… 

 

I still think Monte had the worst choke. There was so much pressure on him to finally get the monkey off his back and win his first major. He hit  a perfect drive into the fairway and somehow made double bogey with 7-iron on a hole that had no water around the green. The guy was seven time European order of merit champion and hadn’t won a major still. This was to be his crowning achievement and he made double from 160 with a perfect lie. 
 

I don’t think Phil made double so much because he was nervous or choked, I think Phil is just a bit of a maniac. But Monte? That to me was the biggest choke I’ve ever seen. And I was rooting for him! 

iirc he had to wait a long time while the group in front of him cleared the green. during the wait he changed from a 6 iron to 7.