They say a good craftsman never blames their tools… but that’s only if they get to the choose them. You don’t see welders spinning giant wheels of misfortune to see if they get to use their welding kit or have to make do with Elmer’s glue and a spoon. That would be nuts. Thankfully for us, however, the folks on the European Tour’s Content Committee are a little nuts, because this is precisely the situation they presented to Viktor Hovland and Andrew “Beef” Johnston last Friday: play the Dubai Desert Classic’s 18th hole, lowest score wins… but at every shot, you have to pull a random club designation out of a bag. Needless to say, things got weird.
https://twitter.com/EuropeanTour/status/1220738028110413825
You know it’s about to get wacky when Beef draws a lob wedge off the tee. You can’t ask for a more sadistic combination than that. Hovland draws a 4-iron and puts in the fairway, but soon gets his comeuppance when a 3-iron rears its ugly head from the first cut from 127 yards. Beef follows that with the shot of the segment, somehow managing to hold a 4-iron from 97 yards on the putting surface despite a downright disturbing lie.
After getting relief from the grandstands, nearly hitting it in the water, and coming a mere inch from holing a chip, Hovland picks it up for 6, leaving Beef with a long putt from the back of the green for the win… with an 8-iron, of course. After leaving it about six feet short, Beef pours in a 2-iron to halve the hole. Everyone goes home happy, albeit with some pretty fried nerves.
Overall, a pretty fun to way to kick off a pretty fun conceit. We hope to see more of this now post-Dubai Desert Classic; perhaps at the Masters. Something tells us Augusta National will absolutely love this sort of hi-jinx. In the meantime, feel free to try this at your local golf club as long you don’t mind never being invited back.
