Aaron Baddeley made the most improbable birdie in PGA Tour history

Aaron Baddeley, on a day when a season’s worth of oddities occurred at the Valero Texas Open, fired perhaps the most bizarre and wondrous shot we’ve seen in a long time on the PGA Tour.

After an extremely wayward drive on the par-4 17th hole, Baddeley walked back to the tee box and reloaded. And then he holed out from 336 yards! There’s only been one hole-in-on on a par-4 in the history of the PGA Tour.

Even more amazing was that no one recorded the event for posterity, or the yawning maw that is the Internet. We must, therefore, rely on an artist’s rendering of Baddeley’s shot for the ages.

Baddeley, like many of his PGA Tour brethren, tried to drive the green that was downwind of the tee, only he pulled his ball far left and into an unplayable lie. So, lying two, he went back to the tee, swung, and this time not only reached the putting surface but put the ball in the hole. Too bad there’s no actual such thing as a mulligan.

What with Texas-sized wind gusts blowing balls all over TPC San Antonio, scores so crazy even ShotTracker couldn’t count that high, and Phil Mickelson losing his (club) head on a bunker shot, Baddeley’s kinda hole-in-one on a par-4 certainly stood out as one of the round’s highlights.

So, um, nice almost-ace, Badds! Andrew Magee remains the only player in the history of the PGA Tour to make an actual ace on a par-4. He achieved that feat on TPC Scottsdale’s par-4 17th at the 2001 Phoenix Open.

Baddeley, with a 4-under 68, will enter Friday’s second round one shot back of Charley Hoffman, though that may change depending on what, if anything comes of this: