Worst Shot of your Life

[Cantankerish]

Mine happened two weeks ago.  Teed up at the narrow par 4, 3rd hole beside a street.  My tee shot, while struck solid goes slightly left, brushing some leaves.  Believing I had averted disaster, I bend over to pick up my tee when we can all hear the sound of a golf ball bouncing on the street.  It had apparently struck a cement light pole.  At high speed, it bounced past us, 150 yards behind the tee box and somehow nestled in a sand trap beyond the second green.  I could not help but laugh as hard as the rest of them.  But I was embarrassed as heck to take that next shot while a group waited for me.

Edited April 5, 2019 by Cantankerish
added detail

[3jacker]

When I was a kid, about 13, I was teeing off on the 8th hole of my home course.  It featured a modest carry over water, about 100 yards, which began immediately at the tee.  

I skied my drive and the club slipped out my hands (it was hot, the grip was old, I was a newbie at the game).

Lost a ball and club in one swing.

[Vinsk]

My worst shot:

Volume 1/Book 4/Chapter 6/Part 2:

Shanked a 6i off the tee on a par 3 where a friendly bunch of the maintenance crew was having lunch off to the side. Struck the kind gentlemen in his chest causing his paper plate of Mac and cheese to fall into his lap while the others scurried for their lives. When I sheepishly went to get my ball it was covered with Mac And cheese and the gentleman calmly said, ‘ maybe you should just grab a weed eater and make better use of your time.’ I love this game.

Edited April 5, 2019 by Vinsk

[bones75]

I can't think of a "worst" not like the OP's at least (which sounds amazing btw).  But I have had this happen to me more than once: attractive women watching in the group behind me as I tee off on 1, then dribble/shank/hozzle/duff.  Evidently I am one cool cat.

[LMoore]

Easy. Club championship, 18 hole. Par 5. The green is surrounded with members. Cold shanked my third shot into the pond on the adjacent 10th hole.

i was so shaken, I took a 9 on the hole.

[chspeed]

In addition to the various whiffs, shanks, etc. we all experienced, especially when learning the game, my worst shots are those that harmed animals.

1. Early in my playing career, I skulled a shot off the tee gravely injuring a small bird. It was lying there convulsing so I put it out of its misery with my three wood.

2. Playing a sheep farm/golf course in rural Canada (see avatar), with my then fiancee watching, I prepared to hit an easy 5-iron into the fairway, over a group of bored sheep. My fiancee asked if maybe I should wait until they moved on. I smiled, showed her the iron, and calmly explained that these go high in the air. I proceeded to thin a 5-iron straight into an innocent, grazing sheep. The thud was sickening. Luckily, sheep are heartier than I feared and after a quick look around, the stricken ewe resumed lunch. Not sure why, but my fiancee still married me.

3. On a local course, I surveyed a 200 yard shot with my hybrid, ignoring a small flock of geese just to my right. My mighty swing was a shank, heading right towards the geese. They all scattered, except one that is, that briefly waddled around while his broken long neck spun around cartoonishly, and then just dropped dead. Still makes me sick to write about it.

[ZANDER1994]

At 16 I played in a high school tournament the morning after getting my wisdom teeth out. There were complications with my procedure so I was on a lot of pain medication.

I'll never forget walking up to the tee dizzy as a drunkard and missing the ball on my first swing... then on my second swing... and then WAP! Shanked one into the pond right over my coach's head. 

Needless to say I didn't finish the round. Ended up having my dad pick me up and I passed out in the passenger seat. Coach was cool about it and it made for a pretty funny story in subsequent practices.

 

[billchao]

I've hit a lot of bad shots, most of which aren't particularly memorable. Once I tried to punch out of the woods and the ball hit a tree and came back to hit me. There was another time I hit a drive and the head came flying off. There's also that time I played with @DaveP043 last year after telling him how well I've been using a punchy driver shot when I needed something less than driver off the tee and then dribbled it 40 yards.

Those are the only ones that really stick out.

[Patch]

I have hit them all. You name a bad shot, I probably hit it, multiple times. I even have an old book that discribes the 9 bad shots in golf, and what causes them. Personally I think there are quite a few more than 9. Inventions are a great thing. 

The one that readily comes to mind was up in Mesquite NV, at the Casablanca Course. This was few decades ago. 

I had just walked on and paid my fees and headed straight for the first tee. I was put with three retired locals, who were good friends with the starter. The starter was an arrogant, pompous ass. 

The three locals were not happy I was put with them. We were all walkers off the 7K yard tees. 

When it was time for us to tee off, none of the other three wanted to go first, so I stepped up to the task. 

Went through my preshot routine just like always. I put the best, worm burning swing on the ball that one could imagine. The ball went 0 to 30 yards in the blink of an eye. Hit some bushes, and stop on the next tee box. 

The starter gave me a bad time and told the other guys to report me if I hit any more bad shots. That he would handle it. I mumble something under my breath at the starter that almost got his attention. 

Fast forward. As we were all walking off the 18th green, my score card was 4 or 5 shots better than any of the other three guys. One came up to me and apologized for their behavior. 

 

[mcanadiens]

Yep. Lots of bad shots and very few standout. 

My most memorable one was during a men's association quota game on No. 13 of Kittyhawk GC's Eagle Course. it's a 175-yard par three over water center and right. There's plenty of room to bail out to the left, but the No. 14 tee box is also right there. Normally I try to wait till the group has left the tee box, but couldn't do it that time.

I didn't just hook it. I hit a screaming seed of a snapper that smashes right into the grill of a cart sitting next to the 14th tee. It all happened so fast that I'm not sure I even started to yell Fore before impact. Lord knows those guys jumped out of their shoes. 

It still occasionally gets brought up.

[Edsland]

Timber trails awesome course with 1800 Oak trees, one was off to our right near a tee. I took a mighty swing and the 4 or us ducked while the ball careened 20 feet behind us. 

[Piz]

It's called Snakebite.  We all did a shot and left it on the boat dock where we were standing at the time.  Think cleaning fluid and minty soap.  Two years later we found the remnants...the label faded by time.  We shuddered at the memory and left it where it was.

[Buckeyebowman]

2 hours ago, chspeed said:

In addition to the various whiffs, shanks, etc. we all experienced, especially when learning the game, my worst shots are those that harmed animals.

1. Early in my playing career, I skulled a shot off the tee gravely injuring a small bird. It was lying there convulsing so I put it out of its misery with my three wood.

2. Playing a sheep farm/golf course in rural Canada (see avatar), with my then fiancee watching, I prepared to hit an easy 5-iron into the fairway, over a group of bored sheep. My fiancee asked if maybe I should wait until they moved on. I smiled, showed her the iron, and calmly explained that these go high in the air. I proceeded to thin a 5-iron straight into an innocent, grazing sheep. The thud was sickening. Luckily, sheep are heartier than I feared and after a quick look around, the stricken ewe resumed lunch. Not sure why, but my fiancee still married me.

3. On a local course, I surveyed a 200 yard shot with my hybrid, ignoring a small flock of geese just to my right. My mighty swing was a shank, heading right towards the geese. They all scattered, except one that is, that briefly waddled around while his broken long neck spun around cartoonishly, and then just dropped dead. Still makes me sick to write about it.

Don't beat yourself up. We play a local course with lots of pond and lakes, a river flowing alongside it, and tons of geese. There can be a problem with goose crap just everywhere! Well, a young guy was out playing the course with his honey riding in the cart with him. As he prepared to tee off on a short dogleg right par 4, a gaggle of geese began waddling across the front of the tee. Thinking his tee shot would clear them easily, he proceeded to fire one right into the side of the head of a big gander! 

After the thing stopped flopping, he loaded it in the cart and drove all the way back to the clubhouse to confess his sin to the course owner. After hearing his tale, the owner said, "Hell! If they were that close, why didn't you wade in there with a sand wedge and take out a bunch of 'em! Damned things are a pain in my ass!" 

My worst shot was a dead shank off a par 3 tee that ran back against the grain of the preceding par 5 hole. The ball went whizzing through the trees and I saw golfers over there! I screamed FORE! as loud as I could, and the guy was able to duck and cover. But my ball still hit him in the back. I can remember hearing the thud! I went running over there, but the guy said he was cool. That was scary! 

My second worst was trying to punch out of the woods where I hit my drive on a dogleg right par 5. The other twosome parked their cart off to my right thinking they were out of danger. Oh! They couldn't have been more wrong! I rifled one right into the side of their cart, and they went diving for the tall and uncut! That instance we laugh about. 

[iSank]

2017 Day 2 of 21 in Scotland, first game Queens Course Gleneagles 18th hole, not a good drive so I am 230 or so out from the green. Take out my 3 metal, contact sounded solid but the flight path was right at the clubhouse, in horror I half yell fore. The starter is taking the next group to the first tee and it’s not looking good, it’s going to glass or flesh. Somehow the ball makes it thru the crowd, drops about 3 ft hits the clubhouses brick siding then bounces back thru the crowd and out to the rough just left of the fairway. They start yelling at me, I’m slightly refreshed with no damage done, and once I get close enough tell them sorry  yea I screwed up, lighten up. 

Fortunately the next few weeks were Fantastic with the next building I hit being the Old Course Hotel on my 2nd to last day. 

Aloha,

iSank

[boogielicious]

I’ve had snap hooks, huge slices, shanks, tops, the whole repertoire. But when I think of worst shot, it has to be something dumb.

There was course in Covington KY I played way back in ‘82. It was the first time we played it, so we didn’t know the layout. One of the holes was a 170 yard par 3. I have honors so I grab an iron and hit this beautiful shot, one hop on the green about 20 feet from the pin. I’m all full of myself. Then the ranger comes screaming up in a cart and yells, “WTF are you doing? This hole is a par 4! Your green is over there!!!! He points to the right. It was a dogleg and I was in the doghouse. 

But it was a beautiful shot.😜

[mcanadiens]

8 hours ago, boogielicious said:

Covington KY

Devou Park?

[David in FL]

Long par-5.  Swinging for the fence with a 3-wood.  Cold topped the ball so badly that it went 5 yards backwards!  

Still made 5 though.  

[Kevlar10]

21 hours ago, chspeed said:

In addition to the various whiffs, shanks, etc. we all experienced, especially when learning the game, my worst shots are those that harmed animals.

1. Early in my playing career, I skulled a shot off the tee gravely injuring a small bird. It was lying there convulsing so I put it out of its misery with my three wood.

2. Playing a sheep farm/golf course in rural Canada (see avatar), with my then fiancee watching, I prepared to hit an easy 5-iron into the fairway, over a group of bored sheep. My fiancee asked if maybe I should wait until they moved on. I smiled, showed her the iron, and calmly explained that these go high in the air. I proceeded to thin a 5-iron straight into an innocent, grazing sheep. The thud was sickening. Luckily, sheep are heartier than I feared and after a quick look around, the stricken ewe resumed lunch. Not sure why, but my fiancee still married me.

3. On a local course, I surveyed a 200 yard shot with my hybrid, ignoring a small flock of geese just to my right. My mighty swing was a shank, heading right towards the geese. They all scattered, except one that is, that briefly waddled around while his broken long neck spun around cartoonishly, and then just dropped dead. Still makes me sick to write about it.

Not my shot but my brother in law’s.  We were playing early morning at a local course in NJ and there was a wide open fairway on a short par 4.  About 150 yards out was a huge flock of geese.  As I was getting ready to hit, my BinL says, shouldn’t we wait until the geese are out of the way.  I said, no way, they’re 150, we can clear them easily.  I hit my shot well over them.  He decides, what the heck and hits one directly into the heart of the group.  They all clear out except one who is just spinning around in circles with his head against the fairway.  It would have looked comical if it wasn’t so sad looking.  My BinL is really freaking out as we drive the cart up to see if the goose is okay.  He gets out of the cart and walks slowly up to the goose, and it snaps out of his funk and proceeds to chase my BinL.  If I had a camera, it would have been one of the best golf videos ever, my BinL screaming and almost crying as the goose chases him.  The goose turned out to be okay, btw.  What makes the story even better is that last night, my BinL texted me asking why we don’t play that course, it’s so close and cheap.  I said, that’s the course where you hit the goose, remember?  He has still yet to reply.

Edited April 6, 2019 by Kevlar10
Typos