At some point, we’ve all been in a short-game rut. Maybe you’re decel-ing and chunking every chip, or maybe you’re lifting up early and skulling them all through the green, turning pars and bogeys into doubles and triples. You try bump-and-running everything with a 9-iron, then you channel your inner-grandpa with the ol’ hybrid putt-putt routine before ultimately caving in and Texas-wedging it from everywhere with the flat stick. It’s a dark place, the type you convince yourself you’ll never escape from.

We have no idea if this amateur is in that type of chipping funk, but it seems somewhat fair to assume he’s lacking confidence around the greens based off the shot selection you’re about to witness. When the video begins, the player in question can be seen on the other side of a bridge connecting the fairway to the green. The green is surrounded by water, but, as this player astutely noticed, it was possible to putt it across the bridge and on to the green, taking a wedge out of his hands.

Without knowing the result, it’s a smart-brain move. Stubborn/insane players might keep going back to a wedge and expecting a different result, but this guy decided to take his medicine because, as the camera-holder’s caption reads, he “didn’t want to skull a chip over the green into a water.” Heady play, high golf IQ, savvy stuff, etc, etc As for the execution … not great, Bob.

 

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Again, all the pieces were in place for this to be a shot these guys relived for weeks, months, maybe even years. Perhaps he rolls it on and bangs in the next one for par, or two-putts for an all-world bogey. Either way, “I putted over a bridge and on to the green” is a grill room story to last a lifetime.

Unfortunately, it all went wrong on the downswing, when he went full Bamm-Bamm Rubble and nuked it through the green and into the drink, accomplishing the exact same thing a skulled chip would have accomplished. Pure pain. Still love where his head is at, though, even if what’s inside that head has gotten so chaotic that it’s made him terrified of a club literally designed to go high and stop on a dime for shots just like this one.