The biggest misses in golf - The Glenmuir Journal

Sometimes the pressure gets to you and what should be an easy drive or simple putt ends in disaster. It happens to the best of us. To prove it, here are the biggest golfing misses of all time…

Els tees off at the Open. Peter Byrne/PA Wire.

Golf can be a game of averages – and for professional golfers who hit the ball thousands of times a week, the chances of getting it wrong end up being quite high. The hope is that these mistakes are kept on the training grounds and driving ranges.

But sometimes they happen during competition, and usually when you least want it. You can call it nerves, bad luck or just the run of the green, but in the end a miss is a miss, whether it’s from one inch or five feet.

Here are some of golf’s worst misses of all time…

Ernie Els: 2014 British Open

Not one known for his putting prowess, this was a bad day at the office even for him. While many pressure putts come towards the end of the game, this miss was during his first hole. With just a foot putt to make, Els not only missed that but also failed to putt the follow up from two feet.

His attitude looks overly casual, but afterwards Els admitted that he was distracted by the fact that he’d struck - and bloodied - a spectator with his opening drive just moments before.

Watch Ernie fall to pieces

Scott Hoch: 1989 Masters

Scott Hoch had a pretty decent career, winning eight tour tournaments. But it could have been so much more if he’d sunk this putt in the Masters. Every golfer wants the famous green jacket, and Hoch came closer than most.

He’d made it as far as a play-off against one of the golfing greats, Nick Faldo. All he had to do was roll the ball a mere 24 inches into the hole to take home to prize. But, despite hitting what he still calls a “good putt”, the ball rolled around the rim and away. Faldo went on to hole and win.

See Scott miss this simple putt

Scott Hoch looking like he’s just missed another shot. David Davies/PA Archive

IK Kim: 2012 Kraft Nabisco Championship

Again, it came down to the last hole. After a stunning performance across 71 holes and the majority of the 72^nd, all IK Kim needed to win was a simple one foot putt. But, it wasn’t to be as the ball skirted round the rim of the hole and rolled back tauntingly to almost the same position.

The video of her failure became a viral hit on YouTube and is worth watching if only for her reaction – this look of disbelief on her face as if even she can’t believe it didn’t go in.

See her miss and reaction here

TC Chen: 1985 US Open

It’s one thing to miss a big shot at a massive competition – it’s another to have the rest of your career defined by it. TC Chen led by four shots as he approached what seemed to be a simple chip shot on the 5^th hole. Yes he was in the rough, but the green was just a few feet away.

To see the shot, you wonder how he managed it. He dragged the chip to his left, away from the green and back into the rough. He did this by actually striking the ball twice – once as it came out of the rough and a second time on the follow through. He went on to score eight on the par five and lost the tournament by a single shot. Since then, he’s been known as ‘Two Chip’ Chen.

TC Chen becomes Two Chip Chen

Brandt Snedeker: 2009 BMW Championship

Like Els’s miss, this putting collapse is hard to watch. Snedeker was on the green and needed to make the putt in two shots to qualify for the season-ending Tour Championship. His first attempt wasn’t okay, just missing and leaving him just a couple of feet from the hole.

His second attempt was bad, swirling round the edge and away. Like Els, complacency set in and Snedeker tried to finish off with a quick putt – which he also missed. His two-shot putt ended up taking four.

Watch two become four