Royal Troon’s iconic par-3 eighth hole, the Postage Stamp, measures just 120 yards and features five bunkers.
Joaquin Niemann found three of them on Friday.
He then delivered the bounce-back of the championship so far.
Teeing off at 1 under for this Open Championship, Niemann landed his tee shot in the middle-right bunker, about pin high. His next ended up in the infamous Coffin Bunker left of the green, and his third ping-ponged back into the front-right bunker.
Finally, Niemann splashed out to the back portion of the green, 26 feet from the hole.
Joaquin Niemann experienced it all on the 8th. pic.twitter.com/D4Ma3WllkF
— The Open (@TheOpen) July 19, 2024
Three putts later and Niemann was walking off the green at 4 over having just carded a quintuple-bogey 8, the worst score on the short hole of the week.
But Niemann wasn’t deterred. He birdied four holes on his back nine to record his second straight even-par 71. He’ll enter the weekend seven shots off Shane Lowry’s lead.
“It was a tough hole and a tough break,” Niemann said. “But I knew if I recovered quickly I was going to be able to bounce back because I’d been playing some great golf and hitting the ball really good.”
There’s more good news for Niemann, too: Winning a major title after carding an ‘8' on a par 3 has been done before. At the 1903 U.S. Open at Baltusrol’s Old Course, Willie Anderson, a Scot, closed in 82 with a quintuple bogey on his ninth hole before beating David Brown in an 18-hole playoff with another 82.
