PGA Championship

Oak Hill Country Club



The Ultimate Lowlights

These are the two wackiest breaks you'll ever see a tour pro get (in back-to-back holes!)

January 20, 2023

In the annals of the PGA Tour, sequences like Kevin Na making a 16 at the Valero Texas Open or John Daly putting six into the water at Bay Hill in 1998 come to mind in terms of total trainwrecks. There’s a new addition to this genre, kicked off by SH Kim’s very unlucky sequence of events on his second shot at the 16th hole at the Stadium Course at PGA West.

The 16th hole is the site of one of the most treacherous hazards on the PGA Tour, nicknamed the San Andreas bunker, which is nearly 20 feet high and runs up the left side of the par 5. It’s the type of hazard you want to avoid at all costs. Thing is, SH Kim should’ve avoided this hazard … but when he got not one but two unlucky breaks on the SAME shot during his second round, he had quite the visit to the PGA West beach.

You have to see it to believe it:

Truly unbelievable. If his ball doesn't catch the flag dead on, he's looking at a great chance at birdie. Instead, it caromed just enough to catch the huge lip of the enormous bunker ... and then got so unlucky that whoever last raked that bunker decided to leave the rake outside of the hazard ... leading to the potential of this really unfortunate break to occur.

Kim had to take a drop and try to clip it perfectly off this new sod above the hellish bunker. Then four attempts out of the sand later ... which the PGA Tour social media team decided not to share, we suppose, to not further embarrass Kim ... and the upstart 24-year-old who has had a couple nice finishes already this season (T-4 at the Shriners and T-12 at the Sony Open) took a brutal snowman on the par 5, which was playing as the easiest hole so far this week.

He had to compose himself and go play one of the trickiest shots on the entire course, the par-3 17th hole, which is basically a replica of the 17th at TPC Sawgrass' Stadium course but with a bigger green.

Because the golf gods have the sickest and most twisted sense of humor, you won't believe what happened:

Just sick, sick stuff. An 8 followed by a 2. That's golf, isn't it? Those rocks are where Jason Dufner got really lucky to avoid rinsing his shot in a playoff in 2016 en route to winning. Just a reminder, do whatever you have to do to make sure you're on the good side of the golf gods. They can be so brutal.