what's the biggest meltdown you have ever seen on a golf course?

[peter_constant]

The hardest shot in golf thread has got me thinking about the biggest meltdown I have seen on a course

For me it had to be two years ago when I watched a 12 handicap playing partner going from being on the verge of his best round ever to a gibbering wreck with no sand iron

...15th tee 170 yard par 3, he stands on the tee 2 over par gross in a club medal
Shot 1...hits a thin one two yards short of bunker of left of green, horrible bare lie
Shot 2...tries a delicate chip over bunker, decelerates massively into ball and just nudges it into the bunker on to a downhill lie
Shot 3...gets very steep on it and does little more than move a lot of sand and his ball into the middle of the bunker
Shot 4... tries to get cute and leaves ball in bunker
Shot 5...compensates by really attacking the ball knifes it into the face, ball comes flying back hits him in leg (2 shot penalty)
Shot 8...eventually gets it out and on to the green, smashes sand wedge into hardpan by bunker, breaks sand wedge, throws head into bushes, plants the grip in the ground next to the bunker, gets on green and three stabs for an 11

Proceeds to 16th tee steam coming out of his ears 10 over par, plays last three holes in stony silence carding two doubles and treble at the last to finish 18 over, rips up card, gets in car goes home, sends text message apology to me and the other member of three ball that evening

 

[MacMachattie]

Ha ha. I was once playing a couple of mates in a big money match over 36 holes. For the purposes of this story they'll be pal 1 and pal 2. Pal 2 was out of it with six holes left - a good 10 shots back of me. but I was 8 behind pal 1 who was playing great. We got to the 13th tee and pal 1 ripped one down the middle. He gets up to the ball and shanks it, a small chuckle and he heads right to where his ball has ended. He shanks it again. He proceeds to circumnavigate the green with shanks. Eventually he gets it on the putting surface and makes a 10. He shanks his way in with triples and worse. I win by miles and even pal 2 pips him on the last.

 

[PaulOHagan]

Great stuff.

A mate of mine made his debut in the Carnegie Shield higher handicap competition in Dornoch last year. He is a 15 handicapper and we had informed him of how difficult the course was. Standing on the 16th tee he was 9 over gross and wondering what all the fuss was about. He then proceeded to finish 10, 9, 10 for a crowd pleasing 99. He was the talk of the town that night and I’m not sure if he has ever recovered.

 

[furyk_or_unique]

After one particularly torrid season I somehow got it all together for the wonderfully named season-ending Dyke Rose Bowl, reaching the tee of the shortish par-4 last at just 3-over. Then mis-hit my 2-iron for safety into the fairway trap, took four to get out, duffed my next well short, chipped on and two-putted for a 9, thus failing to break 80 yet again. Lunch was taken in stony silence with no-one quite sure what to say to me.

However, got my own back in the afternoon. Having started 4, 9, 4, I came to the last needing two birdies to break 80. Miraculously I holed good putts on both holes to do just that, making the whole day much more bearable. Talk about the full range of emotions in one day!!

 

[Trueblue]

At the risk of stirring up any more winterfoursomes' related debate (see Spirit of Golf Debate), my latest and probably worst meltdown was in the aformentioned competition this year - cruised to the turn 3 up, playing a very nice but pretty hopeless pair, got to 11th and my Dad and I were about 4-over par and looking forward to a nice lunch.
Suddenly the wind got up on the links and the opponents spicked up a couple of holes, as the low handicapper of the 4 i thought no problem. The 13th is a short par4 and reachable with a big drive...i put us into a bush with a wild slice. Next hole sitting on the fairway 150 yds from the hole...dunked into the crap in front of the green. 15th tee, a par3, opponent drilled a driver (wind very strong now!) into the ladies tee-box and it wnet backwards - i shanked a ball into the dunes and never found it. 16th i dunked another one into a bunker and missed a putt on 17 to lose the match. Not a happy lunch, not a happy Dad!

 

[ace_in_the_pack]

I love a good disaster when it turns round and helps you to beat your mate, who has been winding you up about the score all day.

I played against my mate who is off 18 and he was beating me, off 6, gross with four to play. Until he suddenly began to hack it round, in his usual fashion. At the short par three 15th, he was giving me everything on the tee about how he was beating me and I was never going to live it down, but he thin slices two into the lake on the right of the green and then plugs one in the greeside bunker. He takes an impressive 13 while i made a nice birdie. Thats an eleven shot swing, three holes later and I had won by three, nett, and he was so devastated he refused to play for three months, and he has never lived it down.

 

[Dave3498]

Being for up with four to play in Company Society competition, and losing to his chip-in on the 19th, was my biggest meltdown. However, my disappointment was cancelled out by his jubilation, so things balanced out in the end.

 

[Teetotal]

In the majors it has to be Jean Van de Velde!