No golfer is immune to bad shots, not even the best. We know it’s a tough game, so when the world’s top players fail, we can’t help but feel a little sympathetic, but also a little forced smile…
Joel Girrbach had a memorable final nine holes at the DP World Tour’s KLM Open on Saturday, with the 30-year-old not only opening the back nine with a nine, but also finishing with a nine at the Holland International.
(Image source: Getty Images)
Gierbach started the third round of this tournament at one under, well behind overnight leader Mikko Kohonen, and was likely trying to shoot a low score to see how he fared at the end of the day.
However, after three bogeys on the fifth, sixth and ninth holes, which left him with a front-nine score of 39, the Swiss player needed to turn things around on the back nine to pull off a decent score.
On the par-4 10th hole, which was 0.34 strokes over par, Gierbach hit his ball to the left of a fairway bunker and continued to play it left and right of the fairway, according to the DP World Tour website. He finally holed out his putt from inside two feet for a quintuple-bogey ninth.
(Photo credit: DP World Tour)
To be fair, Gierbach did make birdie on the next hole (the par-3 11th), but consecutive bogeys on the 12th and 13th meant he fell further down the rankings. After finding birdie on the par-5 15th, he probably just went into the clubhouse as quickly as possible and forgot about the day’s adventures…
Golf, however, doesn’t show mercy to anyone, and on the par-5 18th, the other hole played over par that day, Girbach pulled his ball left and was forced to play another shot in. From there, the 30-year-old hit his fourth shot into the water and three-putted on the final green, which gave him a quadruple-bogey nine, his second bogey in nine holes.
Of course, this isn't the first time we've seen a high score on the final hole of the KLM Open. Back in 2022, Kiradech Aphibarnrat was one under and needed to make par to make it to the weekend. However, the Thai star hit three balls into the water and took 12, finishing the tournament at six over.
As for Gierbach, he will be in last place in Sunday's event in the Netherlands. However, he has had many excellent results so far in 2024, including top-10 finishes at the Bahrain Championship and the Volvo China Open. As of this writing, he is 60th in the Race to Dubai standings.
