The 12th hole at Club de Golf Chapultepec is a tricky one. At 395 yards, a lot of players can bomb a tee shot down the hill and over the trees to set up a short second shot in hopes of making birdie, but it can just as easily jump up and bite a player forcing them into a big number.
The hole’s dramatics were perfectly on display on Saturday during the WGC-Mexico Championship third round.
Kevin Kisner could only muster a 110-yard tee shot on the hole, but good second and third shots left him with a tricky 5-footer for par. That’s when Patrick Cantlay let rip a monster tee shot cutting the corner of the downhill par-4.
As Kisner grinded over the par saver, his playing partners, Justin Thomas and Patrick Reed, noticed Cantlay’s drive bounding towards the green.
This close to a hole-in-one for Patrick Cantlay on the 395-yard 12th. @K_Kisner got a front row seat. pic.twitter.com/lbNmAtEceH
— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) February 23, 2019
“You know you always look up and you see your ball. I looked up and saw his ball coming at me and I’m like, ‘Where did that come from?’” Kisner told GolfChannel.com’s Rex Hoggard after the round. “(Cantlay’s) was the first one I saw and I was like, ‘Crap, they are going to hit.’ Mine went in the right edge of the hole and lipped in. His should have gone in. I thought that it was going to go in right on top of mine.
“JT and Patrick were dying laughing. They said, ‘We didn’t know what to do. We didn’t know if we should call you off or what. You were about to putt.’”
Cantlay’s ball came to rest just 3 feet from the hole, and he was able to convert the eagle chance.
394 yards to 3 feet. ?
Patrick Cantlay cleans up the amazing eagle. pic.twitter.com/fM9e6ax3oe
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 23, 2019
The UCLA product’s eagle was sandwiched by a pair of birdies on the 11th and 13th holes. He added another on the par-5 15th as well to shoot a back nine 31 en route to a 6-under par 65 that vaulted him 13 spots up the leaderboard into a tie for third place.
Cantlay will begin Sunday’s final round seven shots back of Dustin Johnson, who shot a 5-under par 66 despite carding a double bogey on the 10th hole. He leads Rory McIlroy by four shots.
