Last year I was lucky enough to hole 3 bunker shots. The 6th an uphill par 5 3rd into the bunker. First and second shots don’t make it out then hole the third for a bogey. 13th par 3 shank over the fence, shank over the fence, then a bunker and in for a triple, and 16th par 3 first bunker attempt unsuccessful then holed the next one for par. Just to show you never know when you are going to have a moment of brilliance.
I holed my first flop shot last week on the 16th hole at Streamsong Black. It was a tight lie to a close pin and I wasn’t sure I could get my lob wedge under the ball enough to get it up in the air and avoid skulling it across the green. The shot came off beautifully and landed directly in the hole for a birdie.
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15th hole on my home course is a shorter par 4, 315ish yards. Had pulled my drive through trees on the left into the 14th fairway. Playing best ball with my partner in good position, I aim at a small window between the branches blind to the green. Hit my line perfectly, (and as my partner tell me) the ball hits about 5 feet below the hole and slides about 8 feet away. Hit a never a doubt putt in the heart and waltz away with a birdie
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5th hole dogleg left. Hooked my driver down to the next hole leaving myself with a uphill shot with lots of trees. Pulled out my 3i and hit a low draw that cleared the bank and ran up on the the green for a 2 putt par. Probably couldn’t repeat it in 100 shots.
Also when I started playing golf I was a member at Miramar GC next to Wellington Airport. Hit a ball over the fence into the airport carpark and it landed and then bounced back in bounds. So lucky
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I had just gone psycho double, birdie, birdie, eagle, birdie, double on the previous 6 holes including a pitch in on a driveable par 4.
I step up to the 10th tee, normally a driver/sand wedge, and block my tee shot to the right. It hits high on a tree tree and bounces back 30 yds near the adjacent fairway. Playing partners are in the fairway 100 yds out, and I’m at 190 with a forest between me and the hole. I saw a gap where I could hit a low punch 4 iron, aimed at the pond with a 20 yd cut. I flushed it, and it hit 30 yds short of the green and rolled up to 3 ft for an easy birdie!
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Nothing as grandiose as that, that I can remember. But this year in our annual interclub I had short sided myself on a par 3, in the rough. I had struggled with my lob wedge all weekend, but as I was over the ball I said “well, are you gonna man up and hit this our are you gonna continue to be a *****?”
I hit a perfect flop that landed right where I wanted it to and rolled in for birdie.
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I pulled off what was maybe the best shot I’ve ever hit this year - and that includes my hole in one and double eagle.
I had 257 off the fairway on the right side, into a tiny breeze. I was down in sort of a flat at the bottom of a mound next to a bunker with a small tree impeding my angle on the right side just a tad. Had to carry the whole way because the green sits just past a pond and sort of double creek (pond - 3 yards of grass - creek - knoll of a couple feet - creek). The green is a pretty shallow green. Maybe 15 yards deep, but really wide. There are big trees on the front left and front right, so it creates sort of a tunnel to hit into. Angle is very important if you’re going for it in two.
I was swinging really well that day. -2 thru 5. I grabbed my hybrid because I wanted to come in at a steeper angle of descent. Pin was only maybe 15 paces on. I was really just trying to get it to the flat, open part of the green left of the pin. Put a pure swing on it trying to play a high cut. It did. And landed just on the front edge, carrying the back creek by maybe 4 feet, took one bounce, and rolled out to maybe six inches.
I had no business going for it from where I was off the tee, but my swing felt good, so I said screw it - which is generally how I operate on par 5s anyway. Paid off. Eagle. -4 thru 6.
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Embracing the challenge is a huge part of it. Every time I go into those woods now, I tell myself I can make birdie from there. I had a great 95 yd fairway bunker shot last week that spun back for an easy birdie and I said out loud before the shot that “I love shots like this” and meant it. I need to have that same embrace for putting as I do the ‘miracle’ shots, and keep the negative self-sabotaging words out of my vocabulary.
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I have two that I can remember really well, in my short playing career.
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I was in the National Championship for Golf Channel Am Tour at PGA National last year. It was an abysmal showing but on day two with everything seeming to go wrong, I land in a bunker that is just garbage. It rained all night and all morning so the bunker wasn’t raked at all. I was in the bottom of the bunker with about a five foot lip in front of me. The first two attempts out of the bunker, my 58º bounced off of the hard pack and into the center of the ball, the ball rolled up the hill and nearly back to its same spot twice. So on attempt three which I am now shooting for double bogey, I was able to get under it just enough and finally elevate it onto the green, it hit, spun right, and rolled in to save double. Golf can be cruel sometimes.
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I was at one of my local area golf courses in the Vegas area called Revere. It’s a long par 5 around 580 but plays really down hill on the tee shot (to have a real chance at getting home in two, you have to hit 330 or more). Nonetheless, I hit a solid tee shot but left the face wide open, I mean wide open, I think I missed right by 100 yards and that’s no exaggeration. Anyway, we see the ball go into the desert and then fly straight up and kick back left, It got a great kick off of a boulder and kicked it back towards the fairway. It took another hop onto the cart path and then rolled out to the left into the middle of the green, leaving me 205 to the pin, and outdriving my buddies by almost 100 yards. I turned to them and said, you just have to know where to miss.
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I don’t really go for the miracle shots very often these days. Too much time spent reading/listening to @ScottFawcettDECADE and @jon. If I had your skill level maybe I would try more of them.
Though last week I did embrace the 90% air tree philosophy because it was the least bad of the bad options I had after a poor tee shot and ended up saving par. So there’s that.
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Yep, I spent the better part of my golfing life with a LEEROYYY JENKINS mindset, but have definitely gotten a lot smarter for the most part the last few years. Playing in a lot of match play/skins formats gives me the opportunity to take some recovery risks that I wouldn’t necessarily take in medal play, and 60% of the time, it works every time 
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It was only for a par in a match play tournament, but I pulled off an awesome flop shot. I would likely never attempt it in a normal round as I was shortsided and on hardpan hitting to a severely sloping green, but it was match play and I thought I needed par to tie. Turned out I only needed bogey, but maybe the impossible flop par rattled my opponent. I somehow dunked a GW for eagle a few weeks later, but honestly the par was way more impressive…especially given the recent state of my game.
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A number of years ago we were playing and i could not even tell you what course it was. But we were on a hole that was uphill, dogleg right and we could not see anything but what was right in front of us. . I had 165 to the green. I hit what i thought was a good 6 iron, it felt good and it looked like it had some distance going in the right direction. We got up there and looked all around and i was bummed we could not find it. Figured it went into the woods on the right. As we kept searching for it , all of a sudden i hear this huge laughter from one of my buddies as he was standing over the hole. I guess the last place i would have ever thought to look was in the hole but there it was. Now i was bummed because i wasn’t able to watch it fall in the cup. Those are the ones that will keep you coming back.
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This happened a couple years ago. Was 180 out and my ball finished under a spruce tree with pruned but low hanging limbs. Took my 4 iron, got on my knees to avoid hitting the branches and hit it onto the back fringe. Ended up with 4 for par.
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I have had 2 lucky chip ins where I have bladed my chip and it has run up the bank at the back of the green done a u-turn and rolled in on the way back down. Pure ass but as they say “no pictures on a scorecard”
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Playing wolf.
Made a big mental mistake and forgot a guy was stroking. Pick my partner (plus handicap, not stroking) on a par 5 18.
Playing like $40 base because of cry baby. My partner goes over the green with his second (200 yd carry over some water). Guy who is stroking hits a dead pull left… I am thinking no way it’s not going in water… hits an oak branch hanging out over water and gets miracle kick back into the green (50 ft away from pin). He’s actually out as my partner is short sided and hits a beautiful lag to 1 ft for a gimme net eagle. My partner is short sided to a slightly elevated green, down hill after it gets on. Hoods a 60 degree, punches into the hill, one bounce on the green and drains it dead center for the push.
I am not ashamed to say that I wanted to kiss that man on the mouth after that miracle save.
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There are two shots the come to my mind when I think of the most memorable miracle shots.
- I would have been 15 playing Poppy Hills and on the 12 tee shot just that just got over the ravine and hit a big high draw over the trees to 15 ft and made the putt.
- Second shot happen this year hit into the back of the bunker, plugged lie, one foot out of the bunker, though my club might hit the lip and about a 25 yard bunker shot that I hit to 3 ft.
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I have two that spring to mind here.
First was playing in the British Universities individual championships. I had a bunker shot with the flag about 20 feet away from my ball. Hard downhill running away from me and there is just nothing going to stop my ball, so I figured the only thing that would stop it was the flag so I better hit it. I hit it. Ball wound up 6 inches away. Playing partner wasn’t watching and he asked me how the **** did I get it there, so I told him. Not sure he believed me.
Second was Bethpage Black 10th hole. I hit a weak cut off the tee towards the right side of the right bunker. I get up there and the ball is on the downslope into the bunker at the back of it. Surrounded by clumps of fescue but there is a route to the back of the ball. It’s sort of sitting up a little on a tuft so I can make a swing at it but I’m standing in the bunker and the ball is maybe a foot above my feet. 225 to the flag. 3 wood and it came off just perfect. Finished up about 6 feet away. Missed it.
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I just remembered this. My first birdie on the 12th hole at my course. Hooked my 2nd shot left onto a plateau with a steep bank down to the green. Pulled out my putter and hit it but it was going nowhere near the hole. Then it hit something on the green,(probably a piece of bark), turned left and went in the hole.