Queenslander Rod Pampling stood at 12-over par through 35 holes of the US PGA Championship – seven shots outside the cutline – but his final drive turned heads and helped his playing partners.
A storm delay earlier in the afternoon at Quail Hollow Club pushed the field behind schedule and resulted in several players needing to come back early on Saturday morning, US time, to complete their second rounds. Prior to that, however, were comical scenes as players attempted to scurry around the course to finish in Friday’s dwindling daylight.
Several players jogged up fairways or putted out in near darkness in a bid to finish, while Pampling ‘took a hit for the team’ by bunting his final drive, Happy Gilmore-style, into the left-side trees:
¯_(ツ)_/¯ pic.twitter.com/7RRrf6AIOe
— PGA of America (@PGA) August 12, 2017
That low snipe travelled a mere 225 metres (deliberately short and wide of the group in front) and his next shot just 18 metres more. But by teeing off, it allowed Pampling and his playing partners Thomas Pieters and Xander Schauffele to play out their last hole at their pace and not at the mercy of the officials’ sirens to halt play.
‘Pamps’ and co. did finish out, each player double-bogeying that ninth hole and all three missing the cut. But before Pampling leaves North Carolina, we reckon Pieters and Schauffele owe him a beer or two.
