Tough Days At The Office

British Open 2024: European Tour pro admits pride kept him from hitting driver on par 3

By Alex Myers

July 20, 2024

Kevin C. Cox

With all due respect to Si Woo Kim, who aced Royal Troon's 17th hole with an iron in calmer conditions on Saturday, the shot of the day on that 238-yard par 3 was Scottie Scheffler's 3-wood to inside of three feet. That's right, the World No. 1 needed to hit 3-wood on a par 3 in case you were wondering how difficult the wind and rain made things during the third round of the British Open.

Here's Si Woo's hole-in-one:

And here's Scottie's near ace:

But in between those two amazing efforts, Matthew Jordan played the difficult par 3 and opted to hit 3-wood as well. Even though he knew it probably wasn't enough club. Check out this funny exchange the 28-year-old Brit had with reporters after his round:

Q. What was the most eye-opening club and yardage you hit on the back nine?

JORDAN: How long have you got? The 3-wood into 17 when I probably knew I wasn't going to get there anyway. I said to Chris, I can't hit driver, though. I can't do that on a par-3.

Q. What was the yardage for you?

JORDAN: That was about 220 front, high 230s I think it was, so that was 3-wood.

15, I didn't hit it the best, but I don't think I could have reached 15 really with two amazing hits.

I think those are the two standouts. But yeah, that whole back nine, it was so hard.

Q. You wouldn't hit driver on 17 just purely out of pride?

JORDAN: A bit, yeah. To be honest, I think driver would have landed towards the back of the green and it wasn't the club. Put it this way: I had to hit a really good 3-wood to get close to pin high.

One of us! One of us! No one wants to hit driver on a par 3. It just doesn't seem right. So we don't blame you, Matthew.

That being said, both players in Saturday's final pairing, Shane Lowry and Daniel Brown, did let the Big Dog eat on the hole. And both found the front-left bunker. Again, conditions were TOUGH out there.

In any event, Jordan came up short as well, but got up and down. So not only can he say that he made par on one of the toughest holes on the course, he can hold his head even higher due to the fact he didn't need to hit driver.

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Is it the British Open or the Open Championship? The name of the final men’s major of the golf season is a subject of continued discussion. The event’s official name, as explained in this op-ed by former R&A chairman Ian Pattinson, is the Open Championship. But since many United States golf fans continue to refer to it as the British Open, and search news around the event accordingly, Golf Digest continues to utilize both names in its coverage.