Jason Day continued his fine play today, finishing the third round of the Players Championship with a four shot lead. But it wasn’t easy. He made two double bogeys the front nine. But the long hitter hung in there. For example, he hit three wood and eight iron to the 536 yard, par five, 16th hole, with over half of the green surrounded by water. But he missed his eight foot eagle putt to still register a birdie.
The golf course completely changed from the first two days of play. Even though the weather was fine, with a slight wind, and the greens were receptive, meaning they would hold well-hit iron shots so the ball wouldn’t go scampering over the green into rough, sand, or water, yet the greens were very fast and thus gave many players fits. Consequently, although the scores had been very low the first two days, today the average score was a whopping four-over par 76.
At PGA Tour tournaments, officials often make the pin placements on the greens more difficult the third and fourth rounds compared to the first and second rounds. Plus, the 36-hole cut results in about half the players on the weekend compared to the first two rounds, and that also contributes to there being more lower scores the first and second rounds compared to the third and fourth rounds.
Until today, little known Scottish pro Russel Knox has been the third best iron player on the PGA Tour lately. But you wouldn’t know it today when he provided some disaster theatrics at the famed, par-three 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass. That green is completely surrounded by water. It is a frightening icon of now deceased, architect Pete Dye. Today, the hole location was tucked front left, close to the water. The only pin placement more difficult than that is back and far right. That’s where defending champion Rickie Fowler hit to and made birdie last year on Sunday to set up his win.
Almost all of the players were hitting a pitching wedge on the 17th hole today. Knox used such a club as well. But he noticeably let up on his downswing so that his first shot failed to fly far enough to land on the green, and instead it plunged into the deep blue. Players who hit their first shot in the water hazard on this hole then have a choice on where to play their next shot: (1) re-tee or (2) walk forward and left about fifty yards to a circled drop zone, drop a ball, and play their next shot off the grass.
Knox elected to re-tee. He then surprised the gallery, that sounded off with oohs and aahs, when he totally shanked his shot so that the ball joined the fish again, this time way right and short of the green.
Knox then tried the drop zone, which didn’t prove any better. He hit into the water for the third time. Fortunately, he dropped another ball in the drop zone and hit it on the back of the green. He then stroked his first putt on the slick putting surface well past the hole and heading for the water again. But it stayed on the green and he made a perfect third putt, right in the middle of the hole, for a nine. At least Mr. Knox could walk off the green with a half smile, which endeared him to the gallery.
Folks, you hardly ever see a Touring pro shank a golf ball with an iron club. Nothing will cause a devout golfer who loves the game to completely give it up, and maybe even toss his/her bag of clubs in a water hazard or a dumpster, than getting the shanks and not being able to get rid of them. Yes, it happens. It’s a worse golfing disease than getting the putting yips, like Ernie Els has been having. (The Big Easy six-putted the first hole at the Masters this year, yet he may have overcome this nightmare when he shot 66 Thursday.)
When I was a teenager, my older friend Jim Angstead, a 1 handicap player at our golf club, would sometimes get the shanks for months. Because of it, me and my friends started secretly calling him Shankstead. One day, when he shanked a ball, I said it out loud to him. WRONG! He almost killed me.
Shanking happens because irons have a hozel. If you swing and hit the ball too far in the heel of the club, you risk hitting that hozel. When you do, it makes the ball carrom way off to the right of your target. Besides swinging and missing contact with the ball, shanking is the most embarrassing act in golf. It is so embarrassing that I and other Tour players (I played 30 years full time on the regular and Champions Tour) never shanked a ball in PGA Tour competition in our entire careers.
But there is a reason why Russell Knox shanked that ball today. He has a flat swing, which is more conducive to shanking. You almost never see an upright swinger shank a ball. Besides that, Knox swings the club back on the inside of a normal swing plane. In my opinion, an inside takeaway is the most common error that contributes to shanking. I think I noticed that Russell made that shank swing by drawing his club back even more on the inside and flat than he normally does.
But that one faulty swing doesn’t take away from Russell Knox the fact that he has been one of the best iron players on the PGA Tour in recent times. He’ll get over it. Maybe he already knows why it happened.
But there is one other cause of shanking. The foremost story in golf lore is that golf courses have eighteen holes because in Scotland–where they used to argue very strenuously that the game was invented there rather than in Holland–each member of a golfing foursome would take a nip from a fifth of Scotch at the beginning of each hole, and the bottle would be empty after eighteen holes. But drinking whiskey while playing golf will get you a little tipsy. Thus, being a little enebriated, when you swing the club you don’t have your balance like normal, so you might lean too far forward toward the ball on your downswing and whack–you shank the ball way right.
Moreover, be careful when playing with shankers. Be sure you don’t stand on the right side and a little in front of right-handed shankers when they strike the ball. Your reflexes likely won’t allow you enough time to dodge the shanked ball in flight, especially if you adhere to the Scottish tradition of having of nip from a pint on each hole. You know, I’m just sayin’, but not from experience.
(This story about how golf courses got eighteen holes is not really true. St. Andrews was the first golf course, and it eventually had eleven holes that played forwards and backwards for a total of twenty-two holes. They eventually solved a troublesome routing juggernaut by removing two holes to make a total of eighteen).
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