Open hopeful suffers epic meltdown at Royal Troon

“This will be a big confidence boost for me,” Aguri Iwasaki said after qualifying for The Open and his major championship debut.

The Japanese player made the cut just three times in 15 starts on the DP World Tour last year, and a run of nine straight missed weekends saw him make the decision to move back to his homeland and its tour.

Just two events later, he closed with a 65 at the Japan Open to beat Ryo Ishikawa – remember him? – by two shots and book his spot at Royal Troon.

“I’m getting used to difficult pin positions in Europe and that might have helped here,” he added after the victory. “It’s truly the most joyous occasion of my life – initially the victory felt surreal, but I’ve been overwhelmed by the outpouring of congratulatory messages.”

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A penny for Iwasaki’s thoughts now, though, after a miserable second day at The Open as gales topping 35 miles-per-hour battered the Ayrshire coast.

Iwasaki, who opened with a solid 3-over 74 on Thursday, found himself 6-over and just outside the cutline as he turned for home on Friday.

But it all started to unravel.

A bogey at 10 was followed a double at 12, and it only got worse from there. After pumping three balls out of bounds on the par-4 13th, marked a dreaded nine on his card.

Then, the unthinkable.

At the par-3 14th, he found the greenside bunker. His first attempt stayed where it was. His second attempt found a different trap, from which he twice failed to escape. He then played out backwards before needing three more to get down.
A sextuple-bogey. And another nine.

The only time, according to golf stats doyen Justin Ray, that has happened in the last 30 years.

How Iwasaki made played the next three holes in level par is anyone’s guess.

But more trouble was to follow at 18, and another penalty resulted in a seven, a back-nine 52, a final score of 91, and dead last at 23-over-par.

“I couldn’t control it at all,” he said afterwards. “I felt like I wasn’t prepared enough. Even in this strong wind, the good fighters were able to turn it around. I felt that was a huge difference.”

Still, at least he can console himself that he was not quite Maurice Flitcroft levels of bad…

Alex Perry is the Associate Editor of bunkered. A journalist for more than 20 years, he has been a golf industry stalwart for the majority of his career and, in a five-year spell at ESPN, covered every sporting event you can think of. He completed his own Grand Slam at the 2023 Masters, having fallen in love with the sport at his hometown club of Okehampton and on the links of nearby Bude & North Cornwall.

Associate Editor