http://www.oneasia.asia/news/tournament-news/847-stoic-walters-endures-nightmare-hole.htmlStoic Walters Endures Nightmare Hole
TIANJIN, China, May 3 - South African Justin Walters could be forgiven for wanting to borrow a bulldozer the title sponsors are giving away as a hole-in-one prize at this week's Volvo China Open and using it to dig up the par-five 12th at Tianjin Binhai Lake Golf Club after scoring a combined 19 shots at the hole over the first two rounds.
Walters took ten shots to hole out on Thursday -- although he later recovered with five birdies on the trot to finish level par -- but took nine strokes at the same hole on Friday for a second round 76 and missed the cut by four.
Amazingly, he nearly reached the green both times with his second shot, was never out-of-bounds, and none of the strokes were penalties.
After Thursday's effort, when he played the back nine first, Walters had this to say:
"It was a horrible hole to go through because I actually hit two great shots to get to that point and so to walk off with a ten was pretty demoralising -- especially knowing how hard the course was ahead of me.
"I was approximately 30 feet from the hole for two shots and I had a big bank in front of me and I just mishit the first one -- I tried to use a hybrid -- and it got to the top and then it rolled all the way down.
"Then I hit it again and I actually hit a bump, and caught the slope left, and it went with the slope and rolled down further left.
"Then I put the hybrid away and got the putter out and I hit it up to the top. It actually got to the top and I was walking up there, but there was a gust of wind or something and it blew back down the hill.
"Then I hit another one up the top which I thought was actually ok, but it did the same thing and came down."
Walters finally got onto a level surface with his seventh, but, frustrated, three putted.
"That was probably the worst part about the whole thing," he said, "it should have been a nine!"
Astonishingly, Walters went through the same process on Friday -- his second shot landing in almost the same place, and then watching in horror as his ball rolled up and down the slope.
Still, he was determined to main philosophical about the experience.
"This game is crazy and half the time we don't know why we do it," he sighed.
"It asks the question 'how much substance do you have?' If you can come back from it, then the rewards on the other side are usually better."