It could have been worse for Korea's An at TPC Sawgrass
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It could have been worse for Korea's An at TPC Sawgrass

Spare a thought for South Korea's An Byeong-Hun who went out in 36 in the first round of this week's Players Championship but then proceeded to cover the back nine in 47.

He hit four shots into the water on the par-3 17th and ultimately carded an 11, the second-highest score ever recorded at the island-green hole at TPC Sawgrass.

The unenviable record of 12 goes to Bob Tway in 2005.

An wasn't alone in his struggle on that hole. Kevin Na hit three into the water and -- like a few of us would do -- surrendered, withdrew and went home for a beer.

Several years ago, Na shot a 16 at a par-4 hole in a televised tournament in San Antonio.

Try if you can to imagine (visualise) that he was also wearing a microphone for that round.

His tee shot landed in the woods, and from there, it was one folly after another, including a whiff and even a left-handed attempt. To his credit, he bravely one putted for a 16.

The story goes that during the Shawnee Open in 1927 Tommy Armour knocked 10 balls out of bounds on the par-5 17th on his way to a legendary 23.

He shrugged it off by saying that it could have easily been 24.

Out of Bounds: To nobody's surprise, the PGA Tour's experiment of allowing players to wear microphones during their rounds did not catch on as after any golfer's eighth shot a few "wonderfully appropriate colourful" words normally surface -- which was indeed the case, and the experiment was quickly shelved.

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