The Valero Texas Open produced a lot of headlines over the weekend, including Kevin Chappel winning his first event and Ian Poulter losing his Pga Tour card. One of the overlooked aspects of the tournament, however, are the near aces that were almost made.
Anyone who makes a hole-in-one generates a lot of excitement around them but it was even more special this week because the near aces at TPC San Antonio were on Par 4s—you read that correctly, Par 4s! And not only was there a close call for one player on a windy Saturday, two men came incredibly close to the nearly impossible feat.
1 inch from history. pic.twitter.com/DLBZSW2UTH
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 22, 2017
First to try and land an albatross on their card was Dominic Bozzelli. He was in one of the early groups and started on the back nine, giving him one of the first cracks at the 318 yard par 4 17th hole. Bozzelli launched his drive down the fairway and the ball ended up rolling just one inch short of the cup and one inch short from history. The eagle put him at 3 under before a disastrous second nine put him near the bottom of the leaderboard.
The second player on the day who had a legitimate shot at an albatross was Nick Taylor. Heading to the 17th tee a little after Bozzelli, Taylor stepped up with a score of 2 under. He then hit his drive that happened to roll within three feet of the cup, giving him an easy tap-in for eagle, matching what Bozzelli had done earlier.
318 yards ➡️ 3 feet!
#QuickHits pic.twitter.com/HbTBEGchyB
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 22, 2017
While it would have been remarkable to see an albatross during a Tour event, it would not have been the first one to go down in history. There has been one hole-in-one made on a Par 4 in PGA history, and it was unique in every way. Andrew Magee was able to hole one at the 2001 FBR Open at TPC Scottsdale when his shot banked off of Steve Pate’s putter and into the hole while Pate’s group was on the green.
Maybe the moral of the story is to not wait until the group ahead of you is off the green but seeing Bozzelli and Taylor come so close to a Par 4 albatross at least shows that it can be done by another player in the future.
Cover Image via Twitter
