Depending on what kind of golfer you are, the fate that befell Ted Potter Jr. on Sunday at the Sony Open in Hawaii was either comforting or nausea-inducing.
Through 66 holes, Potter Jr. was comfortably inside the top-10 and on his way to a solid start to the 2019 year. However, through 67 holes, Potter had dropped from 14-under par overall and 3-under par for his round to 11-under overall and even on his round.
The worst part? He didn’t play the 13th hole at Waialae Country Club that poorly.
At over 490 yards, the par-4 is one of the toughest holes on the property. Potter piped a drive 312 down the middle, leaving less than 180 yards into the green. He misfired from the fairway, finding the greenside bunker some 40 feet right of the pin, but splashed out leaving himself 13 feet for par.
The putt didn’t drop, but a bogey on a hole that played over par for the week wouldn’t be the end of the world, but what happened next could have been.
Golf is hard. ? pic.twitter.com/0p5yOdKko8
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) January 14, 2019
Potter would miss putts from 2’0″ and 3’2″ to card a triple-bogey 7 on the hole.
The eventual two-stroke difference that came with the missed two-footer would result in Potter Jr. dropping from a tie for 8th place to a tie for 13th, which cost him just over $68,000 in earnings. Had he made the 13-foot par putt, the discrepancy in earnings could have risen to over $90,000.
Brutal.
