The decade in golf: NCG’s worst chokes

Dan MurphyAndrew WrightSteve CarrollMark Townsend

It’s a terrible word but you know what we mean. Our Fourball team look back at the key moments that we wish had never happened

Brace yourselves, none of the following is very pretty. What wer the worst golf chokes of the last 10 years?

Mark: It’s strange to think that Rory McIlroy’s Masters meltdown took place in the past decade.

When he holed a huge putt late on the Saturday night it all looked so straightforward but within a couple of holes you could tell something wasn’t even close to being right.

He was tugging at his clothes, the bounce wasn’t there and what went on at 10 was one of the oddest episodes in the history of the game. The sight of him on the 13th tee was heartbreaking.

You do wonder, for all the talk of the US Open win seven weeks later, how much that Sunday messed things up in his head and how many Green Jackets, in particular, he would now have.

Dan: Collectively, the Americans at Medinah in the 2012 Ryder Cup. They were so much better over the first two days and it still amazes me that they weren’t able to arrest the early European momentum in the singles. It was as predictable as a frenetic start to a football derby yet the Americans couldn’t cope.

choke

Andy: The obvious answer is Jordan Spieth at the 2016 Masters but I don’t think that was as big a choke as many think. He was struggling with his game and it caught up with him at the worst time possible. But people forget he went on to birdie 13 and 15 to give himself a glimmer of hope. Not the work of a choke artist in my opinion.

With 13 holes to play in Abu Dhabi in 2015, Martin Kaymer held a 10-shot lead. Eight holes and six dropped shots later, he was two behind France’s Gary Stal who claimed his one and only European Tour title to date. Last month Stal was back at Q School.

“I can’t put it into words” said the German.

I can Martin, you choked.

Steve: Spieth at 12 at the Masters. I know he won the Open at Royal Birkdale afterwards but I reckon a lot of what has happened to him since emanates from that crazy 10 minutes. A lot of self-belief was punctured that day. Time will tell but I think this was his YE Yang moment where something broke down inside his head in terms of invincibility.

Who had the biggest choke in the past 10 years? Let us know in the comments below or you can tweet us.

About the author

Dan Murphy

Dan is a lifelong golfer. He had the great fortune to grow up within 200 yards of the 5th fairway of his local 9-holer, Rawdon, in Leeds.

Dan attended his first Open Championship in 1988 at Royal Lytham. The first action he saw, peering through the crowds behind the 8th green, was Paul Broadhurst holing out from the fairway below for an eagle. Which seemed perfectly normal at the time.

Since then, he has attended a further 27 Opens. Tragically, he can recite a phenomenal number of arcane statistics about The Open – whether you ask him to or not.

Dan has a post-graduate diploma in print journalism and is an experienced writer and editor. He is also a director of NCG’s parent company.

Dan specialises in the golf courses of the British Isles and heads up NCG Top 100s course rankings. He is not unacquainted with links golf and is closing in on a lifetime tally of 700 courses played.

In a former life, Dan was NCG’s equipment editor. Currently in his bag are: Ping G440 Max driver, Ping G440 Thriver, Ping G440 4-wood, Ping iDi 3-iron, Ping Blueprint-S irons, Ping S259 wedges and a Ping Scottsdale Tec Ketsch Onset putter.

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