Max Homa stood on the tee of the par-3 12th hole at Gary Player Country Club in South Africa to win at 8 under. He has coped well with the windy conditions so far, with three birdies and only one bogey in his first 11 holes. He also won the Nedbank Golf Challenge by two strokes.
But he attacked to the right side of the 12th green, where his ball came to rest in a thick, rough hole. Bogey soon followed, but the worst was yet to come.
Four holes later, on No. 16, another par-3 on the back nine, Houma suffered another horrific miss off the tee. This time he missed 30 yards to the left of the green, partly due to the wind but also due to a poor swing. Even the best players in the world encounter situations like this from time to time.
Homa made a mess of things from there. His ball from the left side of the green zipped across the putting surface and landed in the rough on the other side. He hit the ball poorly on his third shot and made bogey on the low side, missing a five-footer for a double.
But the trouble didn't stop there.
Houma hit his shot from a rock in front of the green after finding the fairway on the quirky par-4 17th, which features a semi-peninsula green with water short and along its left side. His ball bounced into the zone, giving him his fourth shot on the green. Another meager chip shot followed, and Homa failed to make five bogeys up and down.
In a matter of minutes, Homa dropped from 8 under to 3 under to take the title. He is now two strokes behind Frenchman Julian Guerrier at the halfway mark, who won the Andalusia Masters in a nine-hole playoff earlier this fall.
Homa is not ruled out by any means, but he has some things to clean up over the final 36 holes if he wants to defend his title.
Jack Milko is the golf staff writer for SB Nation's Playing Through. Be sure to check it out @_PlayingThrough Get more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jackmilko as well as.