Hardest tee shot in golf claims heap of victims
ANYONE who can continue to play golf after performing emergency repairs on their own dislocated ankle must possess a healthy degree of mental fortitude.
But the toughest tee shot in golf still got the better of Tony Finau, shredding the nerves of the towering American and making him look every inch a Ryder Cup rookie.
Finau was the last man to gain selection for this three-day contest and yet here he was being asked to hit the first ball in anger at Le Golf National.
It was no easy task. Not when the tension had started building long before night turned to day, an audience of more than 10,000 gathering in the giant grandstand and around the first tee with this wonderful golf course still bathed in moonlight.
The atmosphere was electric, the sight of Ian Poulter climbing to the summit of the main stand sparking frenzied excitement ten among European fans still waiting for a first glimpse of the first group.
A USA golf bag came into view and it was met with a pantomime chorus of boos — the appearance of Finau and d his partner Brooks Koepka ka simply taking things upp a notch.
Silence did, however, fall when a man normally anchored securely by those size 14 feet settled in front of his ball. Finau certainly gave it a rip but he also pulled it left, his ball flirting dangerously with the water only to nestle some 18 inches short.
He was left with no option but to chip back on to the fairway, pretty much leaving it to Koepka to try to match Justin Rose shot for shot. The other American also fell short on this occasion, Rose taking first blood with what was a delightful birdie.
Finau would, of course, recover with a stunning eagle on the sixth and an outrageously lucky birdie on the 16th. Indeed, it would be Rose who ended up committing the most crucial of errors, that risky iron into the 18th green proving all too costly for the Englishman and Jon Rahm. That first tee remained the most intimidating of arenas, with Thorbjorn Olesen another rookie to succumb to the pressure. He went one ‘better’ than Finau by actually finding the water at the start of what would prove a tough introduction to Ryder Cup golf. Not least because of how little support he received from a misfiring Rory McIlroy.
A crowd still waiting for one of the biggest names in sport were treated to the appearance of another iconic figure in the moments before match three would begin. ‘I love you man and I wanna be just like you,’ a fan cried out when he spotted Michael Mich Jordan. OnO the tee Tyrrell Hatton toC took his first Ryder Cup challenge in his stride while Paul Casey clearly found his return after a 10-year absence a little more difficult, sending s his ball into the rough ro on the right. They were wer no match for Jordan Spieth, Spiet who made the most explosive explosiv of starts. When Tiger Woods did arrive, it came as no surprise to see him spared the hostility endured by Patrick Reed and the rest of his team-mates. Europe’s fans even urged Tiger to ‘start the clap’, the American politely declining with a tip of his cap.
There was no shushing of the crowd by Reed, the Masters champion silencing the European crowd on this occasion with a perfect tee shot that was followed by three more fine efforts in this final match of the morning session.
But earlier this week the Americans described this opening tee shot as the hardest they had faced all season and it would claim another victim in the afternoon foursomes, Poulter compounding McIlroy’s misery by firing his shot straight into the water.