I don’t know much about golf, except that you hit the ball into the hole in as few shots as possible.  I am somewhat familiar with the scoring, from video games.  I do know that taking 16 shots on a par 4 is extremely bad for a pro.  (FYI, par is what’s normal/expected.)

Last week a pro golfer named Kevin Na shot a 16 on the ninth hole in the Texas Open, for the second-worst score on a single hole in PGA Tour history.  This is what you would call a debacle.  This video is a summary of it from SportsCenter on ESPN.

Is it bad when your caddy lost count of your score?  And then during the shot summary your caddy says, “You whiffed at 8.”  I understand amateurs swinging and missing, but it’s got to be rare for pros to whiff.

If you want to see how Kevin Na dealt with it between shots, here’s the full telecast of just that one hole.

It’s funny that at 0:47 in the video he says, “What are the chances of me getting out of here?”  He’s likely talking about hitting the ball out of the extreme rough / deep woods.  You don’t want to hear that.  But in the back of his mind he might be wishing for an escape tunnel, so he can get out of there before this makes all the sports highlights for the wrong reasons.  (This did make #1 on ESPN’s “not top ten” plays for the week.)

John Daly holds the record for the highest score on a single hole at a PGA Tour event, with 18.  That was a par 5.  I heard he hit several in the water.  I wouldn’t mind seeing a video clip of that one, but a quick glance online didn’t find it.

I’ve heard there’s a 5 minute limit to find your ball or you’re penalized.  It would’ve been better for Kevin Na if he had never found his ball…

On a related note, a while back we had a caption contest about golf featuring an animal hazard by the green.