A lot of people communicate approximately the Golf Gods and the cruel and unusual approaches they wreak havoc, mentally and bodily, on unsuspecting lugs simply seeking to get their ball within the hollow in as few a photographs as viable. (That doesn’t encompass me, thoughts you, as I don’t dare immediately communicate approximately the sport’s mystical overseers, least they punish me with a case of the yips or the shanks. I rather talk over with them in a roundabout way and strictly within the name of journalism.) It wasn’t the Golf Gods, but that always was given Nacho Elvira on Sunday at the Maybank Championship. More like Mother Nature. Elvira, in search of his first profession European Tour win, had led heading into the very last spherical at Saujana Golf & Country Club in Kaula Lumpur but became now one stroke back of Scott Hend, the 45-year-antique Aussie competing with Elvira in the very last organization, as they have been gambling the 569-backyard par-5 last hole.
Under ominous skies, the Spaniard become set to hit his 1/3 shot at the 18th, a brief pitch simply shy of the green. Yet simply in the center of his swing, a noisy clap of thunder rolled via, distracting Elvira and causing him to go away his ball a disappointing 30 ft from the hole. The European Tour first had a video of the unfortunate accident posted on Twitter (which we embedded whilst we published this tale this morning). However, the tour has in view that, disappointingly, taken it down. If you didn’t see it earlier this morning, it was quite remarkable how precisely Elvira is ready to hit the ball; you may pay attention to the increase.
After that thunder, tournament officers, as John Huggan wrote in his piece approximately the realization of the very last spherical, had no choice but to halt play and wait out the strength inside the place before letting them end up. Hend changed into facing a 20-foot birdie try himself that might have ended the affair in regulation. And wait, they did … for 1 hour and 40 minutes. The postpone may want to have rattled Elvira; however, impressively, the 32-12 months-vintage didn’t allow it. When he again to the route and face the vital putt, he stepped up and created a jolt of his personal.
The hand couldn’t top it, and the pair went to greater holes, the primary playoff of the 2018-’19 European Tour season. But Elvira could not hold the momentum going, hitting into a greenside bunker on the playoff hole, a go back to the 18th, and making a bogey to Hend’s birdie. Elvira will need to watch for the maiden victory a few different days. In the intervening time, we don’t blame him if he’s taking the Golf Gods Mother Nature’s name in vain.
