"Kick it when no one's looking", "Bad luck but good spirit"- Fans react to hilarious Xander Schauffele's relatable shot
US golfer Xander Schauffele found himself in an unexpected situation after his tee shot lodged itself among tree roots at the ongoing 2024 Zozo Championship. The two-time major champion haplessly tried to make his way around before taking an unplayable.
Fans found the incident relatable and hilarious. Schauffele himself laughed off the situation. The PGA Tour posted a video of the entire scenario as comments poured in from all around the world.
Fans gave some funny suggestions while some appreciated the golfer's spirit.
"Just kick it when no one is looking"
"Just pick it up and move it. You're not on tour.....oh, wait. Sorry," one fan joked.
"Bad luck, but good spirit"
However, several golf fans criticized Xander Schauffele for not taking an unplayable before and risking his position in the tournament by recording a quadruple bogey due to wasted shots. Some fans believed that trying to swing at tree roots could have also caused an injury.
"No golfer should be required to hit a shot with almost certain injury, like a tree root," one fan said.
"Moral of the story: take the unplayable," another added.
"He should have dropped with a penalty and moved on!!!!" one fan exclaimed.
Schauffele is currently placed T70 with a 3-over score after the culmination of round 1 at the Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club, Japan.
"I was an idiot" - Xander Schauffele on his mistake after carding quadruple bogey at the 2024 Zozo Championship
Xander Schauffele was faced with a problem after his tee shot got wedged between tree roots. Ideally, in a situation like this, he would have called for a penalty drop. However, the US golfer kept trying to swing at the ball with no luck, eventually taking an unplayable. The two attempts resulted in him carding a quadruple bogey at the hole.
While the 30-year-old laughed off the situation, he later spoke about his mistake of not asking for a penalty drop before (via the BBC).
"I wanted to take a photo of it almost, how bad it was. For me to think I can do anything definitely got me in a hole there. I should have just taken an unplayable, but I was an idiot and tried to hit it. Then I was stubborn and tried to hit it again, then finally took an unplayable,"
Schauffele stated that he kept trying to hit an unplayable shot due to overconfidence and stubborness (via Golf Monthly).
"I thought at worst I would hit the ball, hit the tree and go somewhere. The worst thing happened, the worst thing that could have happened happened twice. Just a combination of being overconfident and being really stubborn and it sometimes pays off for me in tournaments and today it bit me in the a**," Xander Schauffele said.
He added the best he could do in such a predicament was laugh it off.
"Making an eight on a par 4, I think I led bogey avoidance this last season. It's not something I've done in a really long time. It's probably been like a year since I had a meltdown like that. All you can do is laugh at it at that point because it's just terrible."
While it will be very hard for the golfer to claw his way to the top ranks, he still has three more days to go. The 2024 Zozo Championship being a no-cut event might play into Schauffele's favor.