12 ... 13 ... 18 ... golfers recall holes gone awry

By Bill Kwon

"Golf is not a funeral, though both can be very sad affairs."

The latest golfer to say "amen, brother" is Bob Tway, who splashed four balls into the water at the TPC Sawgrass' frightening par-3 17th hole to take a 12 in Monday's final round.

The history of golf is full of such disasters and Tway found out that misery indeed loves company.

No one, for example, will ever let Tom Weiskopf forget about the 13 he took at the par-3 12th hole in the first round of the 1980 Masters. He put five balls in Rae's Creek fronting the green. Weiskopf later went on to say that he didn't hit a single bad shot.

Dennis Rose, Mauna Lani's director of golf, remembers playing with Weiskopf years later at Troon, England, when a fan came up to Weiskopf and said, "Hey, I was there at Augusta when you had that 13."

"Tom looked at him and smiled," Rose recalled. "But you could tell he was kind of upset."

Arnold Palmer took a 12 in the Los Angeles Open at Rancho Park, and there's a plaque at the green, commemorating it. Someone had the temerity to ask Arnie how come he had a 12. "I missed a putt for 11," the King answered.

Tommy Nakajima took a 13 at the par-5 13th hole in the 1978 Masters. If that wasn't bad enough, he took a 9 at St. Andrews' 17th "Road Hole" — one of the most celebrated and feared holes in golf — later that year in the British Open after he had reached the green in two! He putted off the green into the Old Course's hellish road bunker and took what seemingly felt like forever to get out. British scribes still call it, the "Sands of Nakajima."

Asked whether he lost his composure after the 13 in the Masters, Nakajima, who was assessed a pair of two-stroke penalties for touching the ball with his foot in the hazard, replied, "No lose composure, lose count."

But probably nobody felt worse than an Englishman named David Ayton, who was leading by five strokes with two holes to go in the 1885 British Open. He took an 11 at the "Road Hole" and lost the championship.

Then, of course, there's John Daly. Big scores are almost a daily, pun intended, routine with him.

His latest came in the final round of the Bay Hill Invitational two weeks ago. Just short of the 18th green in the final round, he took four swings and moved the ball only three inches before deciding to take a drop.

He wound up with an 11.

It's far from his personal record.

Daly took a 14 in the final round of the 2000 U.S. Open after hitting three balls into the Pacific Open at the 18th fairway at Pebble Beach. But his lousiest score was an 18 at Bay Hill's par-5 sixth hole in 1998 when he hit five consecutive shots into the water.

No golfer is immune from making a big score or running into a disastrous hole. Local golfers have had their fair share.

Rose said his worst hole was the uphill par-4 13th at the Mauna Kea Beach Golf Course in which he nine-putted in the Tournament of Champions several years ago.

"I had a 5-footer for birdie and I made 11. The first putt lipped out and went off the green," said Rose, recalling his Sisyphean experience. Every time he rolled a putt up to the green, it rolled back down.

"You couldn't even keep the ball on the green with a marker behind it because of the wind."

Three-time Mid-Pacific Open defending champion Regan Lee recalls three-putting for a 9 when he was playing for the University of Hawai'i golf team in an intercollegiate tournament at Waikoloa Kings, when the wind was blowing like mad.

Lance Suzuki recalls shooting an 11 on the final hole to lose the 1968 state high school championship at Ka'anapali North when he was a junior at Kahuku High School. He went on to win the title his senior year.

Brandan Kop remembers when he took a 10 at the Oahu Country Club's 15th hole when he was 14 years old. The following week he finished third in the Junior World at San Diego, so he soon forgot about it. "I try to block out the bad holes," said Kop, a four-time Manoa Cup champion at his OCC home course.

Bev Kim, a Hawai'i Golf Hall of Fame member, shot an 11 or 12 when she hit three tee shots OB to lose to Ethel Kahikina in the Maui Women's Invitational more than 40 years ago.

Local golf guru Allan Yamamoto also can't forget his first tournament because he took a 10 at the par-4 14th hole at Kane'ohe Klipper, going from one footprint in the sand to another at the bordering beach.

"My ninth shot went over the green and I pitched it in for a 10," said Yamamoto, who recalled his playing partners saying, "Nice shot."

NBC golf analyst Mark Rolfing, who was at last week's Players Championship, said that the tee shot at the par-3 17th was "the most terrifying shot of the day" because of the wind.

"It was a frightening hole and made for tremendous theater," he said.

And we would have had more horror tales to tell if Fred Funk hadn't made his 5-foot par putt to win or Luke Donald had sunk his birdie putt to force a playoff.

"The decision had already been made to start the playoff at 17. It would have been a phenomenal finish. Maybe a double-bogey would have won," Rolfing said.

Funk will be back

One of the first to congratulate Funk after his victory in the Players Championship was Thos Rohr, head of the Waikoloa Beach Resort on the Big Island, where the 48-year-old winner spent the New Year's holiday with his family while preparing for the Mercedes Championships.

"Now, win the Masters," Rohr e-mailed Funk, who e-mailed back, "I can't wait to get back to Hawai'i."

Bill Kwon can be reached at bkwon@aloha.net.