The Situation I Was In
I was playing Pinehurst No. 2 (as I have more than 2000 times as a member) in the fall of 1988 with three lawyers from Cleveland whom I had just met on the first tee. I was at that moment a five-time winner of the National Amputee Golf Championship. Through seven holes I was 1-over par. I hit the par-5 eighth in two shots but missed my 5-foot eagle putt and settled for birdie. On the ninth, I made a 5-foot putt for a birdie two. The tenth at No. 2 is another par-5 of about 500 yards. I drove up the right side just off the fairway. There was nothing at stake other than my desire to always play my best.
The Shot I Pulled Off
I hit a 3-wood which landed short of the green and followed the contour above the right bunker around to the right and up onto the green. The greens at No. 2 had been rebuilt back to their old margins a year or two earlier. The pin that day was in the back right in an area which had been reclaimed, so to speak, in the refurbishment. In other words, the pin location was guarded by the bunker my ball had just curved around. Perhaps you could have landed and held a wedge shot in that small space, but there was no other way to get a 3-wood there. My ball went in the hole for a double-eagle two! I have won perhaps a hundred tournaments in sixty years of golf, and I am certain that I have pulled off many shots with more at stake and under more pressure. So, understanding the concept, I spent some time thinking about other candidates. I kept coming back to the extreme rarity of a double eagle (this was my second and, so far, my last one) and, finally, just couldn't make myself put forth another choice.
Tips and Tricks
- Actually, I wasn't quite finished that day. On the eleventh, I hit the hole with my second shot from 140 yards, stopped two feet away, but missed my birdie putt. On twelve, I again hit my second to two feet and made the putt. So, I played five holes in 6-under par despite missing a 5-footer and a 2- footer. My score that day was 67. The lesson which was reinforced for me was that, in golf, you can sometimes catch lightning! Also, we should always play from the tees which are matched to our skills and hitting distance in order to bring all the potential excitement of golf into play!
