Rory McIlroy and Ian Poulter feature in the golfing fails of 2015
Monday 28 December 2015 12:07, UK
We've seen an array of aces, albatrosses, eagles and stunning shots across the European Tour and PGA Tour during 2015, but things haven't always gone as planned. Here's a look at a few examples where shots haven't gone how the player had hoped!
Rory's club takes a plunge
Rory McIlroy has often stayed calm under pressure when in contention for victory, but the Northern Irishman uncharacteristically lost his cool during the WGC-Cadillac Championship.
Having already found the water with a wayward drive at the fourth during the second round, McIlroy ended up in the lake again with his approach to the par-five eighth.
He took out his anger on the offending club by flinging his iron into the same hazard, with a scuba diver later retrieving it out of the water for him.
Johnson gets a shock
If being in contention for a maiden win of 2015 wasn't stressful enough, Zach Johnson was given an unexpected fright during the final round of the John Deere Classic.
Faced with a 25-foot birdie chance at the par-three 16th, the future Open champion was going through his back stroke when he was startled by large booming sound coming from the nearby lake.
The air cannon saw Johnson jump in fear, but he would go on to post a two-putt par after his interruption and fall one shot short of eventual winner Jordan Spieth.
Daly goes for a dunk
John Daly was rolling back the years and looked on course to make the cut at the PGA Championship some 24 years on from winning the event, only to quickly fall apart with one horror hole.
The 1991 winner got into bother at the par-three seventh, where he found the water three times before launching his club into the drink.
Although the iron was salvaged by a young fan in a boat, the same can't be said for Daly's scorecard as the two-time major winner went on to three putt and run up a septuple-bogey. Ouch.
The ball that wouldn't drop!
Alvaro Quiros posted his second-best finish of the season during the Portugal Masters, although his week will be remembered more for a bizarre incident at the 12th hole during the opening day.
The Spaniard narrowly missed a 10-foot birdie putt at the long par-five 12th, but appeared to have left himself the simplest of tap-ins to stay three under for the round.
Having casually rolled his ball straight into the heart of the cup, Quiros could only look on in sheer disbelief as his par save had rebounded back out. How did it not stay in?
Poulter's shanking
Ian Poulter had already suffered a dreaded shank at March's Honda Classic in a round where he found the water five times, only to suffer a similar fate as tournament host at the British Masters.
The 39-year-old had got himself in to a good position at the par-four fifth during the second round at Woburn, only to completely shank his approach right and in to the bushes.
Poulter lost his grip on the club and tried to find the funny side from the comical incident, but ended up posting a double-bogey after that errant shot.
