Golf is game that is played outside on rolling fairways and through scenic — and often wooded — terrain. While trees can oftentimes be a nice accent mark on a hole or course, it’s less than ideal to get stymied by a tree or group of trees.
In honor of Arbor Day today, here are 10 terrible golfer tree fails that show you how Mother Nature can get revenge when you least expect it.
There it is…
We get this amateur tree fail list started with this guy and his two buddies out for a friendly round. By the looks of it, he found himself with a hanging lie in the rough and a couple of trees to negotiate. As the saying goes, trees are 90 percent air, so why not take them on. However, judging by his comments, he takes it one step further and claims he didn’t even see them!
After a mighty, unbalanced whack he nails the tree and the ball ricochets right into the cart only to have it come to rest no more than two yards away from where it started. Laughter ensues for good reason.
At least you tried
This guy didn’t stand a chance with this shot from the start. There are just some shots that look doomed to fail and this was one of them. That’s not to mention the inclination to watch your ball fly through the trees, which inevitably results in poor contact — in this case, a cold top.
Thread The Needle
The Thread the Needle Challenge is a new phenomenon in which golfers post videos of them doing the opposite of what this list is comprised of. Our friend above was unable to thread the needle, instead, he opted for the whiff and whack. His first go resulted in the ball not moving and his second whacked the tree so hard it appeared to travel some 30 yards… backwards.
Gardening
This man uses an interesting approach which teeters on the edge of being illegal. With his ball under a tree and buried in the brush below, he goes into full gardening mode to give himself a chance to make contact, which he does. Somebody get this guy a trowel!
“Try not to snap your driver…”
This poor girl’s driver was doomed from the start, and her friend filming wasn’t exactly any help either. In fact, you can hear him foreshadow what was going to happen with that evil laugh of his. Right on cue, she snaps it on her follow through leaving her laughing and crying on the ground at the same time. Naturally, the friend laughed too.
Right back at you
We’ve seen some pretty gnarly ricochets off trees, but rarely are they captured in slow motion as it whizzes by the person brave enough to film it. Then he has the presence of mind to turn back around and capture his buddy hang his head in shame. Well done.
Courageous
Most normal people upon seeing this lie would probably use some four-letter word to describe it and then take a drop. However, most folks aren’t this gentleman. He courageously attempts to play it as it lies only to whiff and snap his club in half. Hopefully, he took a drop after that, but we doubt it.
Duck and cover
This guy was trying to “pull off a miracle” by threading it through the trees. Needless to say, he doesn’t and almost kills himself in the process.
Rosey
While it’s not a tree, this rose bush this guy crawled into is filled with thorns. Why he’s in there? To find a lost ball, obviously. After several painful yelps, he tosses a ball out and emerges a hero, or an idiot depending on how you look at it.
Quite a Stance
While the result isn’t an actual fail, the stance sure is. Somehow this dude manages to straddle a tree to address the ball. Miraculously, not only does he maintain his balance, he actually makes decent contact. Why he’s wearing his glove on the opposite hand as a righty normally would remains to be seen.
