Matt Wallace on Friday on the ninth gap at TPC Craig Ranch.
Golf Channel
Jack Nicklaus, the 18-time main winner, was speaking about shanks.
Even supplied a correction about one, too.
The topic got here up final month, on the Masters, after Nicklaus participated within the ceremonial opening tee shots at Augusta National, the place he was informed by a reporter that YouTube has allowed the youthful viewers to relive his prime — and shots seemingly everybody want to delete from historical past. Said the reporter:
“I saw a shot you hit on 12 in ’67, a sideways shank …”
But Nicklaus reduce him off, to some laughter.
“’64. It was an 8-iron, and I almost killed Bob Jones and Cliff Roberts. Shanked it right over their head in the last round.”
The dialog continued.
“I can’t imagine you’ve shanked too many shots in your career.”
“Not too many, but I’ve shanked one or two,” Nicklaus stated. “That was one. Jones and Roberts came down to watch us at the 12th hole. Their cart was out in front here, about 20, 25 yards on the right side, and I put it right over their head with an 8-iron. I nearly made three.”
“What did you do when you hit those kind of shots, rare as they were, to steel yourself …”
“Go play the next one,” Nicklaus stated. “What can you do? You know, you hit it. You’ve got to go chase it. There isn’t anything you can do. It’s a little embarrassing. I always — I use that as one of my most embarrassing moments in golf.”
The level in sharing this? A pair causes. Knowing that Jack Nicklaus shanks may be soothing; your shanks don’t appear as a lot as a ‘you problem.’ But there’s additionally one thing extra warming about Nicklaus’ ideas. Maybe it’s why you play this largely lovely however generally maddening sport.
You hit it. You’ve received to chase it.
Good. Or dangerous.
Something romantic about that. On to the subsequent one, as a result of there’s at all times one other one.
With that, there was Matt Wallace late Friday afternoon, a stroke from the highest on the Byron Nelson. He was taking part in his second shot on TPC Craig Ranch’s par-5 ninth, his final gap after he’d began on the again 9. He was 242 out, although in a contact of hazard, as his tee ball settled simply to the left of the cart path and in some patchy grass. He went with a 2-iron.
His ball went about 15 ft off the bottom.
A high.
“Oh no,” Golf Channel announcer Terry Gannon stated.
“Oh my goodness,” Golf Channel analyst Arron Oberholser stated.
“Pros are humans, too,” Golf Channel analyst Johnson Wagner stated.
Wallace seemed down. It got here on the mistaken time. It got here on the mistaken place. His ball darted into the penalty space simply in entrance of him. There was water there.
“When I got up there [to his second shot], and I was like, oh, no bother,” Wallace stated afterward. “But I haven’t hit it off exhausting mud shortly, so I took it again with a 2-iron. I assumed the 2-iron was the play to get it a bit additional up than simply the 4-iron and be left. Two-iron would take out the water, from what I assumed.
“But it got caught on the way back, and the way through, I didn’t want to lean on it so I just tried to pick it and I picked it too much and I topped it.”
Only Wallace discovered his ball. He had a shot on the inexperienced. He hit the inexperienced. He made his par. He’ll be a contender on Saturday.
“I’m laughing now,” Wallace stated, “because I’ve managed to find it and get it up to the green and two-putt.”
Asked an on-site reporter: “What’s the minute and a half or two minutes like when you …”
“Well, I was hoping they found it,” Wallace stated. “so then I may at the very least try to make a 5 that approach. If not, two situations went by my head. OK, proper, the place can I drop this to get it on the inexperienced? Then clearly discovered it, in order quickly as I discovered it, I was like, proper, you bought a bit of luck there so take benefit of it.
“So as unlucky I got off the tee a little bit, I think I got away with that one, got lucky there, so happy with the five. And we go. We carry on.”
We carry on.
With that, there was Jason Day later Friday afternoon. The defending champ at this factor, he was on the reduce quantity on the par-5 18th, the place he went proper off the tee. Then lengthy, into the water quick of the inexperienced. Only it appeared he tried to put up quick of it, however his ball cannonballed proper in.
Mishit?
Misclub?
Flyer lie?
Wind gust?
Hard to say. It was one thing. The Golf Channel gang had some phrases.
Said Wagner: “I don’t care if it jumped — that ball should be nowhere near the penalty area.”
Said Gannon: “That was really odd.”
Said analyst Colt Knost: “That’s just inexcusable.”
But issues worsened. Day dropped. Took his penalty stroke. He was hitting 4, which he pitched on the inexperienced, the place it yo-yoed backward. That 34-footer was for par now.
Only he made that.
He’ll have an opportunity to defend his crown beginning Saturday.
Yelled Gannon on the putt: “What? He made it!”
Said Wagner: “I don’t know what I’m feeling right now.”
Unsurprisingly, on the 18th inexperienced, Day sheepishly grinned.
Golf’s humorous like that.
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