We’ve all been there. Trying to escape from position Z in the trees only to take two whiffs, look a fool and pick up.
Open champion Xander Schauffele was brought back down to earth with a humbling experience at the Zozo Championship where he twice attempted a risky recovery shot from the trees which cost him a quadruple bogey.
After starting his day with eight straight pars, Schauffele hit his tee shot on the ninth hole into the trees before the ball came to rest at the base of a tree seemingly covered by a tree root.
The world number two took two attempts to try and escape from this position but after being unable to advance the ball at all, his caddie stepped in and Schauffele took an unplayable drop.
Schauffele found the fairway and eventually found the green with his sixth shot where he two putted for a quadruple bogey eight that leaves him ten shots off the pace on three-over-par after a 73.
“Overall it was pretty low stress for the most part of the day,” Schauffele said after adding eight more pars and a birdie coming home.
“Like 85 per cent of the day was not very stressful. Number nine just, it was an incredible spot. I wanted to take a photo of it almost, how bad it was.
“For me to think I can do anything definitely got me in a hole there. I should have just taken an unplayable, but I was an idiot and tried to hit it. Then I was stubborn and then tried to hit it again, then finally took an unplayable.
“I was going to hit it a third time too just because, but yeah, it was a bad spot.
“Definitely I think having false confidence helps at times and in those spots it really doesn’t. So I’ll definitely try to assess it a little bit better next time and really think if I can get it out or not.”
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