The dreaded snowman.
An eight — 8 — looks just like a snowman on your card, staring out at you, a painful reminder of how wrong things can go in golf.
Good players don’t make them.
Really good players — never.
But over the first two days of the Deutsche Bank Championship, two world class players came up with snowmen.
One survived to play the final 36, the other didn’t.
Phil Mickelson got his on Friday when he tangled with the vegetation growing out of the pond guarding the front of the par four sixth hole. He hit a simply dreadful short iron to end up there. Then Phil being Phil, figured he could use his marvelous shot-inventing ability to extract himself from his predicament.
One wack, then a second, then Mickelson surrendered and went back to the drop area. He would walk off with a snowman and a 75 for the day. Things were better on Saturday but a 72 couldn’t save him from the 36-hole cut. He was way down the list at five-over par and heading home to enjoy his Labor Day.
Jason Day is the world’s No. 1 player and he wasn’t immune. He built his snowman on Saturday at the fifth hole, a par four with deep woods on the right. he made a mistake off the tee and got tangled up in those woods. He would end up with an eight on that hole but he fought back to shoot even par 71 and made the cut right on the number — one-under.
So next time you make your own snowman, don’t feel so bad.
