Your most embarrassing on-course blowup

It happened to Tiger Woods on Sunday at the Masters, so you should feel no shame about your own competitive mishaps.
A sheepish grin is the only logical expression after following a 10 on a par 3 with five birdies in six holes at the Masters, isn't it?

I'll admit that watching Tiger Woods make a 10 on the 12th hole at Augusta National Golf Club during Sunday's final round of the 2020 Masters sort of made me feel good.

No, I'm not talking about some petty schadenfreude at the greatest golfer I'll ever see being brought low by the game's eternal penchant for occasional, randomly-striking extreme cruelty. I'm talking about a feeling of surprising empathy, a shared pain with someone whose relentless excellence for many years seemed completely alien to other golfers, even those of us who can play the game at a decent level.

Woods had never made a 10 or worse on any hole in his professional golf career. Seeing him laid bare by one of golf's most pernicious par 3s (before birdieing five of the next six holes in one of the most defiant stretches we'll ever see) made me feel like recounting my own most harrowing blowup in a decidedly lackluster competitive career.

It was the spring of 2004, my freshman year of high school. My team had traveled for a four-team stroke-play event hosted by Hotchkiss School at their on-campus 9-hole course, originally laid out by Seth Raynor with the help of Charles Banks, who taught English at the school at the time but would later become a golf course design disciple of Raynor's and his mentor, C.B. Macdonald.

Hotchkiss is charming and relatively benign for eight holes, and then comes the awkward par-5 ninth, which drops 80 feet into a valley and rises at almost a 90-degree angle to the right, 45 feet back uphill to a tiny green in front of the modest clubhouse. Dense woods line both sides of the hole off the tee and are marked as out-of-bounds. A reedy pond left of the fairway complicates the approach.

I bet you can guess where this is headed. From my first ill-fated duck-hook tee shot, the hole was in my 14-year-old head and there was no expelling it. All told, I deposited a sleeve of balls into the right-hand woods before finally carding a sextuple-bogey 11. By the time I got my fourth swing (seventh shot) into play, I was hallucinating my opponents laughing like jackals at my ineptitude.

This being an 18-hole event, I had to face the dreaded ninth a second time. I wish I could tell you there's a happy ending to the story, that I exacted my revenge on the hole. Instead, I made a nine, sending yet another ball or two (rage clouds my memory at this point) out of play in the process.

The silliest part of the story is that I played decent golf the rest of the way, ultimately shooting 84. Against a par of 70, that meant I was 4-over the other 16 holes. Not bad, all considered.

At least I didn't make a 16 like Kevin Na did during his opening round at the 2011 Valero Texas Open. That counts for something, right?

Now it's your turn: share your most embarrassing on-course scoring blowup in the comments below. You are among friends here.

Tim Gavrich is a Senior Writer for GolfPass. Follow him on Twitter @TimGavrich and on Instagram @TimGavrich.
16 Comments
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Too many to pick one. Will say I golfed Thanksgiving morning and about two hours after teeing off, I was in the parking lot taking off my shoes. Some days it is just best to walk away.

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Playing club championship at Bluejack National. Birdied #5, 1 over for round walking to #8 tee, 120 yards ... 3 balls in the water, walked off #8 with an 11. Love this game.

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I am 10 handicapper. Playing #3 on Starr Pass Rattler Course in Tucson. Hit a fine drive, second shot comes up short in waste area in front of green. The edge of the waste area has a rock wall lining it with the green up above this rock wall. The waste area is about 10 feet wide the whole length of this rock wall. I figure I can get my shot over the rock wall. Not so easy. Kept hitting the wall and falling back into this waste area. I started to get pissed. When I did get it out, it went OB. This happened around 15 years ago, so I don't recall every stroke, but my buddies were enjoying themselves on the green laughing at me. I took a 17. If I was smart, I would have hit the ball backwards into the fairway, then easily hit up on the green. The waste area caused numerous chunked or bladed shots due to the rocks. I sort of lost my temper and things just got worse. I now know to calm down and to take better shots. Haven't had anything close to a 17 since.

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Club event, shotgun start which put me on 18 a difficult par 5. Hit it left just in the woods, tried to hit a 150 yard shot back to the fairway, hits a tree and OB, drop 1 try the same shot, hits a tree, OB. Chipped out safely, chunked it into the creek, dropped chipped it on and 1 putted for a 10. I liked Tiger's 10 better.

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Handicap 12. Took a 17 without a penalty stoke.
Good drive on a 350 yd. hole. Second shot hit the green but rolled back off on a false front green. Proceeded to to hit 3 shots up and back before staying on the green on the 4th shot.Then putted off the green. Hit three more shots to get on the green. Putted off again. Hit three more shots to stay on the green. Then three putted.

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Bergen County (NJ) Amateur. 15th hole. Staring down the cutline. Mickey Mouse par 4. 310 yards, water in front of the green. Smooth 5-wood down the middle. 98 to the pin. Gap wedge...in the water. Sand wedge from the drop zone...in the water. Put another ball down in the drop zone, addressed the ball, didn't want to hit it. Backed away twice before skulling it over the green to the back bunker. Took three to get down from there.

Talk about embarrassing...Home course, left my approach almost under the lip of a green side bunker. Crazy stance, right foot in the bunker, left knee on the ground. Bladed the sand wedge across the road and off the pool railing some 50 yards past the green. It was mid July so the pool was packed! That was six or seven years ago and my buddies still remind me of it every time I get into a bunker.

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It wasn't exactly the same, but I was probably angrier than Tiger. This was a good twenty years ago. I was a 12 to 14 handicap and I was playing this legitimate tough 9 hole course, except for the last hole, which was a through away, 90 yard par 3 with no trouble. I was playing the best I have ever played, and I made the cardinal sin of adding my score before I teed off. I was 2 under, and had a sand wedge in my hand and thinking anywhere on the green. Naturally, I sculled the shot into the parking lot behind the green! The ball ended up near my car, I through my bag in the car, didn't even say good bye to my friend and drove home!

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Was in a 9 hole comps was on +3 on the 6th hole but then on the par 3 7th blasted a 6iron over the back and had a blind shot chunked it and ended up with a double but managed to get a birdie on the 8th and a eagle on 9th to come to +2!

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Your most embarrassing on-course blowup