Amazing Hole-In-One

June 4, 2006 11:15 AM

How the hell did Fuzzy sink this hole-in-one?! It hangs for looooong seconds in the rough, then accelerates directly to the hole. I swear, there were magnets involved! Quite possibly the most amazing hole-in-one ever.
posted by five fresh fish (54 comments total)

I have a hard time believing that was real. It just screams... chickanery!
posted by JeremyT at 11:19 AM on June 4, 2006

I bet it was that extra helping of fried chicken and watermelons he had back at the plantation earlier that morning.
posted by cloeburner at 11:21 AM on June 4, 2006

Or collard greens, or whatever the hell they serve.
posted by Kwantsar at 11:25 AM on June 4, 2006

How is that possible? It's fake, right?
posted by arcticwoman at 11:26 AM on June 4, 2006

Don't feel bad -- not everybody can hit the green on their first shot.
posted by LordSludge at 11:27 AM on June 4, 2006

The green is downhill?
posted by 517 at 11:29 AM on June 4, 2006

It seems fake. Why would that camera have held the shot for that long? Anyone have a story to back this up?
posted by blendor at 11:30 AM on June 4, 2006

I'm no golf expert (or fan, really) but it seems to me that this looks a lot more incredible than it is because of the nature of TV cameras. The accelerate-at-the-hole bit seems weird because it's hard to appreciate the slope of the green from the iso-ish angle of the camera.

As for the ball basically stopping, that's a little weirder. If it actually stopped I don't think there's any way to start again; static friction in the rough and all that. I suspect it's moving the whole time, it's just really really slowly - so slowly you can't tell from the camera's distance. In which case it's really all just a subset of the "can't tell the slope from the camera angle" problem.
posted by heresiarch at 11:31 AM on June 4, 2006

It seems fake. Why would that camera have held the shot for that long? Anyone have a story to back this up?

It's not fake. It happened yesterday. The Golf Channel has been playing it repeatedly since then.
posted by ericb at 11:33 AM on June 4, 2006

Thanks, ericb. Pretty crazy shot.
posted by blendor at 11:37 AM on June 4, 2006

Wow.

Does anyone claiming it's fake have any explanation of how it would be faked, and why that's more plausible than the odd-camera-angle explanation?
posted by scottreynen at 11:37 AM on June 4, 2006

Was that golf ball made by Diebold??


That was spectacular.
posted by Skygazer at 11:39 AM on June 4, 2006

Damn...that shot just out-wowed last year's Tiger Woods Masters shot from the 16th.
posted by SeizeTheDay at 11:43 AM on June 4, 2006

I don't see why everyone is screaming fake on this one. It's definitely unlikely, but not at all impossible. Golf courses aren't flat!
posted by danb at 11:47 AM on June 4, 2006

Where's the shot of Fuzzy jumping up and down to create enough vibration to get the ball moving again? That's what we used to do in Putt-Putt.
posted by JanetLand at 11:50 AM on June 4, 2006

I bet this is the same ball they used in that fake moon footage. Conspiracy!
posted by fatbobsmith at 11:56 AM on June 4, 2006

If you zoom in on the ball, you will notice that its shadow points in a different direction than the shadows cast by trees. It is clearly a conspiracy!
posted by c13 at 12:03 PM on June 4, 2006

Why is everyone doubting this? The hole is back, and to the left of the rough, it's perfectly cromulent.
posted by jonson at 12:17 PM on June 4, 2006

Don't be silly. It clearly rolls down a big hill into the hole.
posted by reklaw at 12:22 PM on June 4, 2006

SeizeThe Day,

i hate to disagree with you, especially here on this harmonous website, but Tiger's shot was tougher, and more amazing.

and less fake. :)
posted by tsarfan at 12:33 PM on June 4, 2006

"I bet it was that extra helping of fried chicken and watermelons he had back at the plantation earlier that morning."

The Alliance was in West Des Moines, Iowa so of course Fuzzy was powered by corn - it decreases his dependence on fossil fuel.
posted by Cranberry at 12:35 PM on June 4, 2006

Chalk it up to the Law of Large Numbers. Sooner or later given enough shots something like this is bound to happen somewhere to someone. And in this case, the camera caught it.
posted by bim at 12:47 PM on June 4, 2006

Cranberry: Click here.
posted by cloeburner at 1:01 PM on June 4, 2006

Watch the ball closely. Notice how it rolls back and to the left. Back...and to the left.
posted by uosuaq at 1:13 PM on June 4, 2006

So I guess the trained helper-ants have finally been deployed...
posted by yoink at 1:26 PM on June 4, 2006

You guys ever heard of this thing called wind? Put a round object on something, add some wind, and, HOLY SHIT IT MOVES ALL BY ITSELF!!
posted by afx114 at 1:28 PM on June 4, 2006

I think it's a hill; it's just not obvious from the camera angel.

And it is, nonetheless, one nifty-looking trick.

yes, angel.
posted by five fresh fish at 2:03 PM on June 4, 2006

It was attacked by the microscopic wombats which inhabit the edges of lawns everywhere, waiting, waiting, waiting...
posted by HTuttle at 2:19 PM on June 4, 2006

When the ball bounces in the rough you can see that it has a bit of spin on it. Perhaps when it "stopped" it was still spinning in the grass on the rough, enough to pop it back onto the green and start rolling toward the pin.
posted by jimfl at 2:42 PM on June 4, 2006

I think it's a grassy knoll.
posted by graventy at 2:44 PM on June 4, 2006

The Allianz Championship
posted by jaronson at 3:11 PM on June 4, 2006

That would have to be a hurricane to move a golf ball if it's off the green.
posted by smackfu at 3:51 PM on June 4, 2006

That wa awesome, the only thing I can think of that could make a ball stop and then start again is if the grass underneath the ball slowly gave way and then it looks like a good little slope down to the hole.

Pretty amazing really.
posted by fenriq at 3:51 PM on June 4, 2006

Did anyone see Bill Murray messing about with dynamite nearby?
posted by evilcolonel at 4:27 PM on June 4, 2006

Teetering is the word. Then it rolls.
posted by fire&wings at 4:36 PM on June 4, 2006

I think I figured out. Fuzzy is god:

An old man, Jesus and Moses were all playing golf... [filler] ...as the other two men applaud the old man steps up to the tee and takes his swing. The ball heads for the water hazard, but just before it hits the water a large fish jumps up and swallows the ball. From seemingly out of nowhere, a mighty eagle swoops down and grabs the fish, then soars off into the sky. Suddenly a lightening bolt flashes through the sky and smotes the eagle. It drops the fish, the fish lands about four feet from the hole, the ball pops out of its mouth—and lands in the hole, making a hole in one.

Jesus spins around, hands on his hips and yells, "Dad! If you're going to show off, we aren't going to play golf with you any more!"

posted by five fresh fish at 4:43 PM on June 4, 2006

Did anyone see Bill Murray messing about with dynamite nearby?


posted by ericb at 4:56 PM on June 4, 2006

How is this different from standing on the same highway overpass for five years and seeing at least one amazing traffic accident?
posted by gum at 6:56 PM on June 4, 2006

What, you mean five years...non-stop?
posted by jaronson at 7:25 PM on June 4, 2006

It's amazing to watch. Know what else is amazing? There's a Golf Channel.
posted by theora55 at 8:13 PM on June 4, 2006

earthquake.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 8:41 PM on June 4, 2006

Tiger's shot is still better. Even Zoeller thinks it was a lousy (but lucky) shot.

Plus, Tiger's ball obviously understood dramatic tension better, putting the pause at the last moment, on the lip of the hole. ;-)
posted by dhartung at 8:55 PM on June 4, 2006

The grass is holding up the ball, but when the ball blocks the sunlight to the blades of grass, they wilt just a bit, and give way. The natural slope (and gravity) then takes over.
posted by bashos_frog at 9:16 PM on June 4, 2006

I heard a long time ago that if your golf ball is hanging on the edge of the cup, held up only by the grass, that you should position yourself in such a way as to block the sun and try to induce that effect.
posted by bashos_frog at 9:17 PM on June 4, 2006

This is not the first amazing thing I've seen from Fuzzy. At the 1985 Westchester Open, I was in the gallery when he, at the fringe of the green, whiffed at a shot, fell down and rolled around laughing with the crowd, gathered himself and holed the chip. Much laughter and applause ensued.
posted by scottymac at 9:49 PM on June 4, 2006

Nothing is too strange on a golf course.
I've had a hole in one !!
posted by johnny7 at 1:40 AM on June 5, 2006

Metafilter: Golf courses aren't flat!
posted by zardoz at 2:46 AM on June 5, 2006

When I saw it i thought of Backspin, where forward momentum of the ball was finally overcome by the spin going in the opposite direction and had it roll back down the hill to the hole. I don't know how it could lasted that long, but i've played around on pool tables and gotten a ball to go forward and then backward that way.
posted by mrzarquon at 7:26 AM on June 5, 2006

It isn't backspin. It's the grass at the edge initially supporting the ball, keeping it from rolling down the hill, and then slowly giving way.
posted by Lazlo Hollyfeld at 8:21 AM on June 5, 2006

err... what bash_frog said.
posted by Lazlo Hollyfeld at 8:22 AM on June 5, 2006

If you look closely, you can see a small puff of smoke from the grassy noll on the right. The only plausible explanation was a second golfer.

Not only was Tiger's shot better, but he managed to get the ball to pause for a second with the nike logo perfectly centered. Fuzzy's not going to cash in with a shot like that.
posted by Crash at 8:32 AM on June 5, 2006

bashos_frog. I suck at the internet.
posted by Lazlo Hollyfeld at 8:32 AM on June 5, 2006

It's clearly voles.
posted by benATthelocust at 10:31 AM on June 5, 2006

Could be that global warming thing they keep talking about.
posted by five fresh fish at 9:45 PM on June 5, 2006