I played this past Tuesday morning with a co-worker of mine. We played Cobbs Creek Olde Course, the only Philadelphia Municipal course worth playing. I was doing ok, mostly bogeys (which is good for me, because double is the norm right now), with a really nice birdie on #6, hit my tee shot to within 3 feet of the pin. I ended up shooting a 97, hey at least I broke 100, right?

The funny thing is, the round will be memorable because of two very lucky breaks I got, two holes in a row! On the 13th, I hit my approach fat, and had about 30 yards to the green. I missed slightly right, just on the fringe. The green sloped away from me, so I figured putting was the safe option. I hit the putt WAY too hard, not accounting for the downhill slope, and the ball definitely would have been off the green if not for the flagstick. Normally I take the stick out when putting from the fringe but I figured I'd leave it in, and wouldn't you know my ball hit the stick and doink! rolled in! My only par of the day.

The second very lucky break was on my 4th shot to the monsterous 589-yard par-5 14th. I was aimed wayyy too left of the green, I knew it as soon as I hit the ball. Another lucky break, my ball hit a grass berm just to the left of the green, and kicked right about 20 feet, leaving me with a 12-footer for par. I two-putted for bogey, and felt good escaping +1 for the hole.

What are your lucky breaks, bounces, etc.? Ever hit a bad shot and get bailed out? The pin hit on #13 made me laugh out loud, as did my playing partners.

In a tournament, I came to a very easy Par 3 hole. It was about 120 yds and downhill. I pull out my PW and do a little 3/4 swing. Totally shanked it, it hit a tree and then another big tree next to the green. From there it bounced about 20 feet next to the hole. Funny thing is that on that hole it was nearest to the pin, so I won a Jack Nicklaus book.

My luckiest bounce ever was a shot into a par four which was set up as a KP in Two, hit the KP marker and went in for an unbelievable eagle and the KP in Two

This is pretty cool and definately my best break ever. I was playing at a local tournament in South Jersey where the yardage markers were stone slabs in the ground set in the middle of the fairway. I thought nothing of it at first, but when i came up to the 3rd hole (400 yard par 4) I hit an absolute bomb of a drive that proceded to hit one of these slabs of stone dead on, take a massive bounce forward, and ended up just on the fringe of the green 30 feet from the pin. Needless to say, I missed the eagle putt, butt had a tap in for Birdie and carded a personal best (-4) 67.

KinG

That is quite a break!

I remember once I got an absolute flyer out of thick rough, and I was a club up anyway, and the ball carried all the way to the flag was going way over the green, but hit the little air ball (pin locator) then flew into the air, and dropped on the green about 4ft away.

PP

1. par 3 island green, downhill. i pushed my shot and hit the yellow water hazard stake and the ball bounced towards the pin coming up 8 feet short. made the birdie putt

2. par 4, second shot and end up drawing the ball (i play a fade) and its heading towards the cart path. hits the edge of the cart path and bouces towards the pin coming up 12 feet short. made the birdi putt

Not mine, but last year was playing with a business contact (at his club)...he proceeds to pull shots into the woods on 3 consecutive holes...each time he gets a major bounce off the trees and into the fairway.

Once is luck. Two is improbable...but three holes in a row? Talk about a "member's bounce"....

On a long par 5 with a tight left side I tried o hit it way too hard and pull-hooked the ball over the trees on the left and into a street. I hit a provisional and walked down and amazingly my ball had hit some sort of wall across the street and had come back into play.

During a tournament when I was playing in college, I had a second shot into a long par 4. There was a water hazard about 40 yards short of the green that was out of play...or so I thought. I then hit my hybrid for my second shot, which I snap hooked towards the hazard. The ball hit one of the big rocks in the hazard and was propelled forward and to the right, up 40 yards onto the green. Of course then I promptly three wiggled for an easy bogey.

Just the other day I hit my approach shot into a greenside bunker. Upon reaching the bunker, I discovered that a large gum tree branch had fallen onto my ball. Anyway, I struck the branch firmly with my club, only to watch the ball fly 50m over the green. Much to my delight, I took a double bogey on the hole! Talk about luck!

On a par 3 with an island green bordered by large rocks and surrounded by the sea, I pulled my tee shot way left. I knew I hit a bad shot and it looked like it would miss the green by at least 10 yards, so I turned away in disgust. Much to my friend's amazement, my ball bounced off a rock and onto the green. He said it looked like the water spit my ball back out. So my friend steps up to the tee and proceeds to hit his tee shot almost exactly where I hit mine, but his splashes into the sea.

My friend plays with ProV1's while I play with whatever I can get a good deal on. Afterwards, he said jokingly, "I guess the water doesn't like the taste of your cheap balls!"

What is the worst thing that can happen to a golfer on a course (besides double par or something like that)?

Getting hit by a ball in the head.

About 18 years ago, during a father/son foursome tournament at our local club, we just hit our second shots to the Par 4 8th hole. Some idiot behind us had hit his drive about 90 yds into the rough. He proceeded to play his second shot which obviously we did not see because we just started heading to the green. Suddenly "FORE!!!!" we crouched, and BOOM the father of the other foursome gets hit right into the back of his head, approximately 3 yds from where I was.

We were shocked. Turmoil everywhere, his son and I running towards him to see, if he was alive. The guy who hit the Sunday shot was even more shocked, pale as a ghost. He apologized over and over again. We had no time to be angry, just wanted to make sure the guy who got hit was ok.

We ran to the clubhouse (no mobiles then) and the ambulance arrived. Turned out to be a severe concussion, had the ball hit him 3 inches higher, he could have died, we learnt later when we went to visit him at the hospital. Eventually after 2 months or so he was well enough to play golf again...

The guy who hit him, obviously did not continue play that day and it took him quite a while to recover from his unfortunate shot. My dad and I played with the other abandonded group behind us but we played terribly afterwards.

Great stories of lucky breaks. Hey, sometimes is IS better to be lucky than good, right?

I ws playing a round earlier this year and started out bad, but not terrible. Then my round started to go well and i finished +1 for the fround nine but made 2 birdies to finish. Well i am going along and i can get anything to drop on the back. I made on Bogey and 1 birdie. I get to the 14th hole and i left myself about 170 out, i hit my shot and as soon as it left my club i was like darn it is left of the green, all of a sudden it hits the grass and hops right and on the green rolling up to about 29 feet. 3 hole later i was teeing off on 17 and pushed my tee shot right into the one spot you cant go, TRees. Well it hits one of the trees and bounces out into the fairway. I was like WOOHOOOO. i pared out and finished +1 it was a nice round with some nice breaks.

I was playing a par 3 with water in front of the green last year and hit this thin/bladed/worm burner off the tee. The tee was elevated so it stayed in the air long enough to catch the metal wall bordering the other side of the lake and bounce straight back to the side of the lake I was standing on and land a few feet into the rough in front of the forward tees. Just the fact that this happened was both funny to see and pretty lucky too. But what makes it even more rare is that I hit a great 2nd shot and managed a par... the ugliest par I've ever made by far.

I can't think of how many bad breaks off of sprinkler heads or yardage poles I've had, I would have thought I derserved better golf karma, but that's all the luck I've had.

Par 3 with an elevated green and a pond in between the tee and the green. I hit a ridiculously hard worm burner that skipped twice off the surface of the pond, like skimming flat rocks on a still lake, and up on to the green. 2 putt for par.

Last week I had a decent round going, got to the 16th hole and had about 130 out. Hit a nice wedge from the center of the fairway and hit a really bad shot, pushed straight right towards a pot bunker greenside. My ball comes down and hits the trap rake on the face of the bunker, shoots dead left across the green, and I get a 2 putt par.

Same course, first round of the year (think it was the first weekend of April in MA), I had the first tee time, 6am. Thought I caught a wedge fat and put it into a pond before the green, except the pond was still frozen and the ball hopped on to the green.

One last one, about the earlier post with some one getting hit on the head. I saw it happen once, very scary, the guy was totally out of it with this giant lump on his head. Well, the guy who hit him was a personal injury lawyer, so everything was "taken care of".

Mishit left at the 18th hole of Pebble Beach and hit the rock by the beach , bounce on the fw dead center, took my 20* hybrid thin it and left my self 176 yard w/ right to left wind and stiff a 6 iron w/ an awesome slight draw to a 5 foot and make a birdie.

I can't forget the look of my playing partners face. One of the guy took my ball from the cup and throw it in the ocean. LOL!

To top it all off, I hit the iron fat on 17th and chip it short to a 25 footer putt for par and told my caddy that i hate to make this one in front of them, and sure enough i did it!

I have had the usual bounces off trees back into the fairway type stuff, nothing too amazing. I saw a hole in one in my group two weeks ago that bounced off a tree, hit a greenside hill and rolled into the cup. If my first hole in one comes that way I am going to be pissed..

Holy cow, I totally forgot about this lucky break until yours reminded me of it:

First year I started playing, I was addicted and played year-round. I think it was October or November, I was playing FDR Golf course, a Philly muni that is notorious for flooding. I underclubbed my approach and it was headed straight for a large puddle (more like a POND!) about 10 yards from the front of the green. Little did I know that the 4" of water was frozen solid all the way to the green! My ball hits, and instead of plugging in water/mud, bounces once and skids up onto the green, below the hole, about 6 feet from the cup! I was so amazed and nervous at my first legit chance at birdie, I hit the ball four feet past the hole and ended up with bogey. It was pretty cool seeing my Top-Flite ice skate, though.

I was playing an Awsome round with all of my front nine holes at 4 (so my scorecard read 4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4). Get to my 11th hole, a 180 yard par 3, and shank the living piss out of the ball. With about 70 yards to get back on green, I shank the living piss from my pitch shot... Turns out it shanks straight into the back trees near the 12th teebox and I hit a tree with roughly a 6 inch diameter, Bounces back on green for a 6 foot par...i go on 2 under through 15 and then end with a 76.

the next best break would have to be when i was even through 16 and I try to go for a hole in 1, a 310 yard dogleg. I slice it terribly, straight at the OB. I hit my provisional and RUn (which is rare) at the ob sticks, to find my ball lying 5 inches away from a fence.... I take my drops to get out of the fence's way and get my par... that round ends with a 17th hole double for a 74.... I choke, but I can get breaks :-D

I smoked the closest to the pin sign last tuesday and the ball rolled to about four feet pin-high..what can I say? I'm just talented!

I flew back to the midwest a year ago and treated my dad and brother to a round of golf. On one of the par three's I hit it to the front of the green only to have it spin back off and into a deep pot bunker. My dad puts his ball up near the edge of the woods on the left of the green and my brother puts his in the rough behind the green. I tell them to watch out because I'm ready to hit out of the bunker and I couldn't see them (only the very top of the stick). I hit my shot and step out of the bunker and climb up the hill to the green to see my ball two feet from the hole. Apparently my Dad was walking toward the stick when I hit and the ball smacked him in the chest (luckily he's a very big guy and it didn't hurt too much) and fell to the ground a few feet from the cup. My brother is laughing hysterically and I feel terrible. Had Dad heard me give the warning and not been walking there the ball likely would have flown over the green and into really deep rough.

On the only day I have ever played with buggies one of the guys in my group slices a 3 wood like ham and the ball's heading off at speed towards a couple of hundred feet drop into the Gulf Of Thailand.
Ball glances off the side of my buggy and makes it fifty yards or more up the fairway.
Same day, same guy(!) playing pretty badly all day. Hits second shot into a very small green on the side of the mountain. Missing well right, I mean WELL right, into jungle. Hits just about the only large rock in sight, bounces onto the green and he makes birdie.

i know this is for lucky breaks, but just today at our HS golf district tournament i hit a perfect tee shot on my 3rd hole of the day and when i got up there we couldnt find it so i had to call it a lost ball and re tee, ending with a 7 and then that got to me on the next hole too, doubled that. The worst thing is that we looked for the ball for a looooong time and all around and then at the end of the round someone found my ball and returned it, yea, so thats about 5 shots that i lost just because of a hiding golf ball!

Funny thing this topic is here. Today I just got done shooting the best round of my life (-4 / 68). I also made one of the longest putts of my life today on #17 for birdie. It was a big down the hill breaking putt about 65 feet. The geese at my home course are insane right now. #17 was peppered with goose dung. I cleared my line the best I could and stroked my ball.. I made a terrible stroke and pulled it hard left, about 10 feet into the putt, I ran over a big ol' goose turd and knocked my ball back on line. It continued to roll out nicely even with a soft gobb of poo on it, eventually finding the bottom of the cup.

Tell me that when that went in you said "HOLY S**T!"

Back in the mid 80's I was playing in the Southeastern Amateur in Columbus, Ga. On the last hole (a par 4 which goes straight at a big Southern clubhouse), I knew I had to make bogey or better to make the cut. But I pulled my drive into the rough and found the ball sitting in a thick clump of Bermuda. I took a hard swing with a 7-iron and watched the biggest flyer in the history of flyers go soaring over the green towards out of bounds . . . . I grimaced, felt that awful knot in the stomach . . . . but wait, there came a delivery truck rolling slowly on the service road that separated the course from the clubhouse. My ball bounded once off the downslope behind the green, once again on the service road, and then slammed into the back tire of the truck and rebounded back to the fringe of the green. Chip on, two putts. I make the cut and get to play the weekend with my buddies.

Oh, and the truck driver never knew what happened.

Luckiest break ever for me was unfortunately just in a skins game with my friends, not a big tournament. On the par 5 5th at my local course I pushed a 3 wood towards the 6th. It then ricochet of the rain shelter at the back of the tee. All we heard was the thunderous noise, we had little intuition as to where the ball was. However when we ascended the hill to the green here was my ball lying on the green some 20 feet from the hole. An onlooker later informed me that the ball hit the hexagonal shaped roof and bounced high into the air before dropping on the green. I holed the putt for eagle out of what could potentially could have been a lost ball and a bogey at best.

My first birdy was built on a edge shot of my 6 iron on a par 3 with a lake in the middle.
Hit the ball with the edge of the club and it went like a bullet 20" from the ground all the way through the lake, bounced on the water 5 times got onto the green and rolled to 6" from the cup!
I tapped it in for birdy and kept that ball with the course name, hole number and Lucky Birdy written on with a marker! It could have been a hole in one tho...

Luckiest I think I ever got was in one of my first rounds of golf, when I was on holidays in Asia. On a par 3 I hit what I thought was my 6 iron dead straight. My dad said "Nice shot, but real high for a 6 iron". Sure enough it came up well short, and went into the water hazard. Fortunately for me it was the dry season, so it bounced on the rocks at the bottom of the creek, out of the hazard, ending up just a couple of feet in front of the green. Turned out I had mistaken my 9 iron for a 6 iron. I ended up making bogey, great at the time, and making sure I was holding the correct club for the rest of the round.