When you come to the final hole needing a hole-in-one to make the cut at the U.S. Open, you come to the final hole without a prayer. There’s no chance you’re going to walk off with an ace, right?

RIGHT?

NBC anchor Mike Tirico agreed. “Molinari…going to miss the cut,” he said late on Friday at Pinehurst No. 2, while introducing the shot. Only Brad Faxon gave him an inkling of hope, saying, “Unless he pulls a Sepp Straka,” referring to the other ace on No. 9 this week.

Then this happened:

Unreal. And historic. It is believed to be the first ace scored on the last hole to make a cut for any tournament in the modern era. Molinari, whose ace gave him a second-round, two-over 72 and a five-over total, got his props from playing partners Min Woo Lee and Sergio Garcia, and Faxon got kudos from Tirico. All richly deserved. And there is now an approximately 99.9-percent chance Molinari—winner of the 2018 Open Championship—goes 62-62 on the weekend to win by a million.

Image: Sean M. Haffey