'You f***ing beauty': New book reveals Jarrod Lyle's hilarious hole-in-one reaction
Jarrod Lyle had six holes in one during his career, but one stands out above the rest. Here’s a hilarious account of that magic moment and his X-rated reaction from his new book My Story.
The beloved Australian golfer sadly passed away in August, 2018.
From Jarrod Lyle’s book, My Story
I don’t want to put too fine a point on it, but this was the shot of my century.
It was early 2011 at the Waste Management Open in Phoenix, Arizona, at the Tournament Players Club (TPC) Scottsdale’s 16th hole. For those who don’t know, this is the infamous ‘Party Hole’.
There can be almost 20,000 fans in the grandstands that surround the hole and unless you get there really early in the morning, they’re pretty much loaded drunk and as loud as hell – all day. I’m not sure there’s a hole in world golf where you’d rather have a hole-in-one.
If you could play the hole without the people any other day of the year, you’d be fine, it’s not that hard.
But with all those eyes waiting for you to screw up so they can boo, it’s a really daunting tee shot – perhaps one of the toughest in golf, purely because of the grief you’re going to cop if you screw it up.
Nobody cares who you are; you could be Tiger Woods, but miss the green and they’re still going to hammer you.
I first played there in 2009. We were out there early on the Saturday and started off the 10th tee.
This is just the craziest place ever to play golf. Thursday and Friday aren’t too bad, but Saturday is just carnage: people hungover from the day before, people still drinking from the day before; it’s nine o’clock in the morning and people cannot scratch themselves. It’s a total mess.
It’s hard to describe what it’s like walking on to that tee. Imagine what your nerves might feel like on the first tee of a major championship after you’re introduced for the first time and you’re not really sure if you’re even going to hit the ball, let alone where it’s going to go. That’s probably the best comparison.
From 15 green to 16 you walk over a bridge to get back on to the path, then through a tunnel and you walk out onto the tee. There’s so many people and it’s never quiet, but if you’re playing with someone who’s a big name, it’s just crazy.
No matter where you are on the course, you know when someone has hit it close because you can hear them. It’s totally unique. Some guys hated it, but I loved it.
I was feeling slightly more at home by the second round of 2011. I recall everything. I was three under with three holes to go and the cut was looking about two under, so as long as I could keep it out of the water on 17 and 18, I was making the cut.
I’d hit a couple close already in my round, so I was feeling as good as I could be, walking up to the 16th tee. The wind was down off the right. I pulled an 8-iron; it was a back-tee position to a front left flag, I think 137 metres – too far for a 9-iron, but too short for an 8.
Still, I’d rather have been short than long where that flag was because there’s a little run-off about 10 feet left of that flag, and if it catches, the ball is gone. As soon as I hit it, I thought it was too hard, and I was waving for it to get down. When I watch it on replay, I can see that I’m telling it to get down early.
It landed just on the green and only just cleared the front edge, so I was a little bit surprised. It had a little draw on it, my natural shot, then it bounced and on the second hop, it checked a little and went to the left.
I knew it was going to be pretty close now. It was going pretty hard, to the point that if it missed the hole, it may still have gone off the green.
But it started rolling and then disappeared, so I threw my arms up in the air.
Carrying on like a pork chop
It was about 9.45 am and the stands weren’t full; maybe about ten thousand people were there.
I was going berserk internally. I was thinking, I’ve just had a hole-in-one – on this hole! Oh my God, this hole! I was carrying on a treat now, high-fiving the caddie and the guys I was playing with.
I even ran back out on to the tee and waved my arms around everywhere, telling people to get louder and louder.
I didn’t realise this next bit at the time, it was just a purely natural reaction, but I have since: just before I went over to high-five everyone, I screamed out, ‘You f***in’ beauty!’
It’s a typical Aussie yobbo phrase that no American in that crowd would really have understood, even if they’d heard it in all that commotion.
I didn’t realise that 10 feet in front of the tee to the right was a TV camera. And I was pretty much looking at it when I screamed out. But I didn’t really care, to be honest.
As I was urging everyone to get louder and carrying on like a pork chop, my initial thought was to run to the green and pick my ball out of the hole before the next bloke hit. Then I thought I’d better not – that might be taking it a bit too far.
I didn’t want to play it up too much, but I definitely wanted to enjoy the moment – they don’t come around too often. Especially on a hole like that.