Abe Ancer did … not like the result of this chip shot with LIV’s Spain event on the line.
LIV Golf
There’s no pressure like tournament pressure, and as the saying goes, pressure breaks pipes.
Nowhere was this more obvious than on Sunday afternoon at LIV Andalucia, as LIV’s best came down the finish line at the famed Valderrama Golf Club in Spain.
And as for the source of today’s pressure? Well, let’s look no further than Abraham Ancer, LIV pro and current member of the Fireballs squad, which found itself clinging to a late lead in the tournament’s team championship.
(First a quick refresher on LIV’s team format for those — this author included — who remain hazy: On Fridays and Saturdays, three of four scores count towards the team score. On Sundays, all four players’ scores count towards the overall team score, and the team with the lowest 54-hole score wins.)
With the Fireballs holding a one-shot lead on the 53rd hole of the tournament, Ancer faced a tricky — but not impossible — chip shot from the mouth of Valderrama’s 5th green, needing to get up-and-down for par to keep the team lead secured.
He surveyed the shot closely, looked down at the ball and committed. A split-second later, he grimaced. Ancer’d committed the cardinal sin of short-game shots, decelerating through the ball and catching a fat chunk of turf before his clubface had reached the ball. Ancer had chunked it. His shot traveled only a few feet, stopping well short of the flagstick and setting up a nearly impossible putt to save par.
Ancer’s face crumpled into a grimace as the frustration of the moment cascaded around him, but it wouldn’t stay that way for long. Just as soon as the ball came to rest on the lip of the green, Ancer turned his back to the shot, reached his arms back and swung them around his torso in a fury.
The butt of his club, which just seconds prior had been sitting neatly against his chest, was now hurtling through the air with a vengeance, flying out towards the nearest tree stump.
By the time his club had returned below terminal-velocity, Ancer had launched his club some 20 yards away from the green, and the crowd surrounding him was reduced to a whisper.
Ancer would go on to make double-bogey on the 5th hole, his 17th of the day, but the drama wasn’t done there. Just seconds after the disaster on 5, Ancer went on to the 6th hole and made a tournament-saving birdie for the Fireballs, pushing the team into a playoff for the title, which captain Sergio Garcia would go on to win.
When it was all said and done, Ancer was the hero — and the Fireballs the champions. But on social media, a different story had already played out; the story of one of 2024’s most legendary club throws.
