You hear about the lucky breaks and bounces in golf at The Open Championship more than any other major. Two players may hit two equally poor shots and end up in completely different positions. We see it repeatedly across all tours, but at The Open, where you never know what kind of junk a wayward ball is flying into, you’re truly at the mercy of the golf gods, if you believe in that kind of thing.
2017 British Open: Dustin Johnson rockets drive into the stands but gets a perfect bounce
This is not exactly how you’re supposed to play the 5th hole at Royal Birkdale, but the world No. 1 will take it and the resultant birdie.
On Friday, Brooks Koepka’s worst shot of the day just dodged a gorse bush that would have been death and ended up in some trampled-down hay that allowed him to put a full swing on the ball. No harm. Justin Thomas hit an awful shot into the junk, and took three hacks to get it out, nearly lost his club, eventually lost his ball, made a 9, and missed the cut.
On Saturday, Dustin Johnson’s worst swing of the week ended up with the luckiest break of the championship so far. DJ’s ball at the short par-4 5th was so far left that it actually flew past all the intervening muck, slammed into a grandstand, and bounced perfectly onto the green. Johnson is the longest hitter in the world, so going for the green was a fine and wise play, but a yank that bad usually gets penalized. A great bounce off the grandstands isn’t the kind of golf luck indigenous only to links golf, but DJ will take it right now.
The world No. 1 two-putted from there for birdie and is 3-under through his first five holes. He’s moved 24 spots up the leaderboard and is currently tied for 11th.
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