They all look the same on the scorecard. That’s true of all sports, whether they’re tracked in scorecard or box score form. A squibbed single looks the same as a line drive; a sloppy layup looks the same as a thunderous dunk.
And, sometimes, a roller coaster par looks the same as a fairway-to-green tap-in. Kelly Kraft is the latest example. Playing the par 5 17th at TPC Deere Run during this weekend’s John Deere Classic, Kraft, yanked his drive way, way left, into a spot normally only visited by hospitality patrons and Phil Mickelson.
Here’s the diagram:
So that’s not great, obviously. It’s a drive way left, then a recovery to the rough, then a few shots in.
Here’s what that looked like in reality:
Kelly Kraft's first shot on 17? Well left.
His second shot? Must-see. #MustSeeMomentshttps://t.co/FsTIfvRzbO pic.twitter.com/SDS4caFCYm
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) July 15, 2017
Kraft got free relief, but still played from the hospitality tent astroturf. He recovered with his second, hit his third to the fringe, then got up and down for the ho-hum (ha!) par.
Kraft had the requisite sense of humor about the whole thing:
Sometimes you just have to peel it off a grandstand. #bestchoice #par https://t.co/jSzBDKNcsG
— Kelly Kraft (@kkraft11) July 15, 2017
That’s really good, but as you might expect, Phil Mickelson has the best example of this particular golf escape. At the 2014 Barclays, Phil Mickelson hit a wayward drive that bounced off a cart path, into a hospitality area, and necessitated a wedge from the floor:
Phil didn’t quite get that one down. But what makes this amazing is that the very next day, Mickelson did the exact same thing:
He twirled the wedge from the hospitality tent! And then he almost birdied it. That could only happen to Phil, for a variety of reasons.
The John Deere is a fun tournament, though, with the best tee markers in golf:
The John Deere is traditionally a birdie-fest, but if the pars are as fun as Kelly Kraft’s seventeenth hole adventure on Saturday, you could do a lot worse for your Sunday entertainment.
