Ryder Cup hopeful mocks his own octuple-bogey 12 on PGA Tour

Sometimes in this sport, if you don’t laugh then you’ll cry.

Fortunately Matthieu Pavon took the first route over the weekend as he humorously reflected on carding a 12 (Yes, TWELVE) at the RBC Canadian Open.

The Frenchman started at TPC Toronto with a solid level par 70 on Thursday, but then conspired to card an octuple bogey on the par-4 tenth, the first hole of his second round.

It was, thankfully, the worst single hole score of the 32-year-old’s career.

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You might wonder how a PGA Tour winner who is hoping to make his Ryder Cup debut in September might be able to take twelve on an innocuous par-4.

On the surface, it looks like the calamity could be put down to a series of bad decisions, extremely bad execution and then a head loss.

But if you want a step-by-step guide to making the perfect 12, just ask the man himself.

In a hilarious social media post on Saturday, Pavon explained his head-scratching score in excruciating detail:

“The easy guide to making a perfect 12…,” he wrote.

“1. First shot: feeling confident off the tee after a brilliant warm-up. Pull the shot 40 y left into deep rough.

“2. Get lucky: ball is plugged. Make a perfect drop – going for the green is tempting, although a little voice in your head says “get back to the fairway.” Decided to go for it. Grass closed the clubface at impact: straight into the trees!

“3. Dead! Try to go back to the fairway but failed. Now deep in the thick rough! 4. Feeling smart now, try to anticipate the clubface closing at impact. Wasn’t successful ball straight in the water! 5. Drop.

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“6. Great decision: dropping 60y from the pin on a tight and wet surface. Fat the shot: ball in the water! 7. Drop again.

“8. Head is gone. So why not try again from 60y instead of going a few steps back to your favourite 88y? Fat the shot again: water! 9. Drop again (starting to master it) from the same spot.

“10. Realise there are only two balls left in the bag. Play smart: aim left to avoid the big slope pulling balls back into the water.

“11. Finally on the green, God, it feels good! Looking back at the 10th tee and feeling like the clubhouse is not so far away. Nice lag to 1 foot to make sure not making 3 putts (not great for the stats)!

“12. In! (highest personal score on a single hole in career). Walk to the next tee, try to pinch myself, ask my caddie if it was a 10? Turns out it was a 12! Think about Jean-Louis Guepy, record-holder for most consecutive birdies (10). Why not? Birdied the next two… and came back down to earth with a bogey on 13!”

Perhaps the most remarkable thing in all of this is that, yes, Pavon birdied his next two holes.

He wound up with an 80, missing the cut by 11 shots and watched on to see his former DP World Tour colleague Ryan Fox take the title over the weekend.

Ben Parsons is the Senior Writer at bunkered and is the man to come to for all of the latest news, across both the professional and amateur games. Formerly of The Mirror and Press Association, he is a member at Halifax Golf Club and is a long-suffering fan of both Manchester United and the Wales rugby team.