Francesco Molinari starred this Friday in the shot of the day at the US Open in Pinehurst. And one of the shots of the year. The absolute highlight of this US Open. The Italian teed off on the par three of hole 9, his last flag of the day, with his mind already set on packing his bags and going home. His scorecard showed a painful seven over par, three strokes from what was at that time the provisional cut. However, what no one expected happened and the tournament gave him an extra life…
To begin with, the Italian, who was playing with Sergio García and Ryo Ishikawa, was the third to play. He had a 6 iron in his hand, but saw the Borriol player hit a great shot with an 8 iron, which landed on the green in the perfect spot, a palm past the bunker and rolled to the flag to leave a good birdie option, and changed his mind at the last minute. He spoke with his caddie and chose to play a 7 iron. The choice of the week for good old Francesco.
💥 ACE ON THE LAST TO GET INSIDE THE PROJECTED CUT! 💥@F_Molinari with the ultimate do or die moment! pic.twitter.com/XoqmvaDNpi
— U.S. Open (@usopengolf) June 14, 2024
As soon as he hit his shot, as the playing partners who have already played usually do, Sergio began to walk towards the green. But when he had only taken a few steps and saw Molinari’s ball fall, he stopped dead to enjoy the moment. “When I saw it roll to the hole I knew it was going in, I stopped, raised my arms and saw it go right in the middle. It was incredible,” he tells Ten Golf. A hole in one that the Spaniard celebrated with his friend Francesco by raising his arms and going back to the tee to hug him.
At that moment, Molinari went from being +7, with both feet out of the US Open, to being +5 and dreaming of making the cut. It was only a matter of time before one of the players who were four over par made a bogey to open the doors of the weekend to the Italian… something that happened shortly after on that same hole 9, with a major mess by Brooks Koepka.
It’s the absolute highlight of the US Open. One of those images that are etched on a golf course and give you goosebumps. There wasn’t much public following that match, but they can tell their grandchildren what they saw.
