If you’re superstitious, Friday the 13th is already a day to tread carefully. But for golfers? Every day on the course carries the potential for disaster. The game has a way of humbling even the best players with bounces so cruel, so bizarre, so cosmically unfair that you can’t help but wonder if the golf gods are having a laugh.
These 13 shots represent the worst of the worst. Some cost majors. Others defied physics. A few involved wildlife with a vendetta. All of them remind us that in golf, luck matters just as much as skill, and sometimes the universe simply says no.
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1. Tiger Woods Meets the Flagstick (2013 Masters, No. 15)
Tiger was hunting his fifth green jacket when he hit what looked like a perfect wedge into the par-5 15th. The ball flew straight at the flag, struck it dead center and ricocheted backward into the water. Instead of a makeable birdie putt, he faced a penalty drop. The shot didn’t cost him the tournament, but it perfectly captured how even the world’s best can fall victim to a millimeter’s difference between glory and disaster. Interesting side note, I was literally right there, behind the ropes on the 15th that day at Augusta, watching the carnage inperson.
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2. Dustin Johnson’s Bunker That Wasn’t (2010 PGA Championship, No. 18)
Johnson stood in what looked like trampled sand on the 72nd hole at Whistling Straits, needing par to force a playoff. He grounded his club, hit his shot and walked off thinking he was headed to extra holes. Then came the gut punch: officials ruled the sand was actually a bunker. Two-stroke penalty. No playoff. The confusion was understandable since the course had hundreds of sandy waste areas, but the rulebook doesn’t care about your feelings.
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3. Joe Daley’s Dream-Crushing Lip-Out (2000 PGA Tour Q-School)
Daley stood over a 5-foot putt with his entire professional future hanging in the balance. He stroked it clean. The ball tracked perfectly toward the center of the cup, hit the back and appeared to drop. For a split second, relief. Then physics turned cruel: the ball popped back out and stayed above ground. That lip-out cost him his PGA Tour card and, with it, his livelihood. He never regained full status on tour. It’s one thing to lose a tournament. It’s another to watch your career circle the drain and hop back out in the cruelest possible way.
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4. Jean Van de Velde’s Carnoustie Catastrophe (1999 Open Championship, No. 18)
Van de Velde stood on the 72nd tee with a three-shot lead and the Claret Jug practically engraved with his name. Then he hit driver. The ball caromed off grandstand railings into knee-high rough. What followed was a masterclass in unraveling: a failed recovery, a shot into the water, wading into Barry Burn to contemplate his options and eventually a triple-bogey that forced a playoff he’d lose. The unlucky ricochet off the grandstand started the avalanche, but the chaos that followed became legend.
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5. J.J. Spaun’s Boomerang Wedge (2025 U.S. Open, No. 2)
At this year’s U.S. Open at Oakmont, Spaun hit a wedge that took one hop, smacked the flagstick and rocketed backward nearly 50 yards off the green. Fifty yards. The shot had to be seen to be believed. It’s the kind of bounce that makes you question whether the flagstick should come with a warning label.
6. Tony Finau vs. the Sprinkler Head (2025 U.S. Open)
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Also at Oakmont this year, Finau hit a shot that found a sprinkler head and launched into the grandstand, striking a spectator. Pure bad luck. The ball was headed for a decent spot until infrastructure got in the way. Golf courses have thousands of potential deflection points, and Finau found one of the worst.
7. The Seagull Thief (1998 THE PLAYERS, No. 17)
Brad Fabel hit his tee shot onto the island green at TPC Sawgrass, one of golf’s most iconic and intimidating holes. Relief, right? Not quite. A seagull swooped down, grabbed his ball in its beak and dropped it into the water. The bird literally stole his shot. You can’t make this stuff up. Fabel got relief under the rules, but the moment lives in infamy.
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8. Bubba Watson’s Tree Trap (2019 Valspar Championship, No. 14)
Watson went for the green in two and watched his ball disappear into a tree. Not near a tree. In a tree. The ball never came down. After an extensive search, it was declared lost. Going for glory turned into a lost-ball penalty, and Watson’s round imploded. Trees are supposed to be 90% air, but apparently not when Bubba’s playing.
9. Rory McIlroy’s Limb Lodge (2012 PGA Championship, No. 3)
McIlroy’s tee shot at Kiawah wedged itself into a thick tree limb about 20 feet off the ground. He took an unplayable lie, dropped and somehow salvaged par. The shot could have derailed his round, but Rory’s scrambling kept him in position to win his second major. Still, a ball stuck in a tree is peak golf absurdity.
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10. Tom Kite vs. the Purple Martin (2001 FleetBoston Classic, No. 17)
Kite’s tee shot struck a purple martin in mid-flight and plunged into a pond. A bird collision is rare enough, but having it result in a watery grave added insult to injury. Kite made double-bogey, and his late-round push evaporated. The bird, reportedly, was fine.
11. Ludvig Aberg’s Billiards Break (2024 Genesis Scottish Open, No. 8)
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Aberg’s approach landed directly on Collin Morikawa’s ball, sending his shot caroming into trouble like a bad pool break. It’s the kind of freak occurrence that happens maybe once a season on tour. Both players had to deal with the aftermath of a collision nobody saw coming.
12. Padraig Harrington’s Bounce-Out (2014 HP Byron Nelson, No. 11)
From 63 yards, Harrington’s wedge landed in the cup. Hole-out, right? Nope. The ball bounced straight back out. Golf’s cruelest tease. You make the shot, gravity betrays you and you’re left with a tap-in birdie instead of an eagle. Harrington laughed it off, but inside, he had to be screaming.
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13. J.T. Poston’s Ejected Eagle (2024 The Sentry)
Poston’s 44-yard pitch dropped into the hole for eagle. Then it popped back out. Another bounce-out, another moment where the golf gods said, “Not today.” Poston had to settle for birdie, which is still great, but when you’ve already celebrated the eagle in your head, it stings.
Golf is a game of inches, and sometimes those inches go the wrong way. These 13 shots prove that no matter how good you are, the course, the weather, the wildlife or simple physics can conspire against you. So the next time you hit a tree and it kicks out of bounds, just remember: you’re in good company.
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This story was originally published by Athlon Sports on Feb 13, 2026, where it first appeared in the Golf section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.