An albatross for the U.S. Am champ. Are Walker Cup players using up their best shots in practice rounds?

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PEBBLE BEACH — On Thursday at Cypress Point, it was Luke Poulter of the Great Britain & Ireland Walker Cup team holing out from the fairway for eagle on the first hole then making a hole-in-one on the par-3 third. He would make a third eagle before the day was over, leaving some to wonder if he was using up all his good fortune a few days too early.

Well, we’re asking the question again on Friday, only this time with an American player, reigning U.S. Amateur champion Mason Howell.

With Friday’s practice round open to spectators, fans got to see Howell hole out his second shot on the par-5 second hole for an albatross. Thankfully, one of those spectators caught the impressive shot on video.

The U.S. team had just gone out in a tensome(!) but was going to start to branch off and play different holes to close out their practice ahead of Friday evening’s flag-raising ceremony.

Among the spectators in the crowd on Friday is former President George W. Bush, whose great-grandfather the event is named for. (It’s unclear if he was at the second to watch Howell’s amazing shot.)

Cynics will wonder, as we raised in the headline, if the players are using up their best stuff before the two-day competition officially begins. But we’re going to be optimists here and predict/hope for/beg that this is just a sign of some of the fireworks the golf world is in store for the next few days at Cypress Point.

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com