{"id":424952,"date":"2026-01-20T07:12:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T07:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/424952\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T07:12:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T07:12:14","slug":"pga-tour-winners-bizarre-bunker-method-backfires-spectacularly-to-leave-announcers-stunned-australian-golf-digest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/424952\/","title":{"rendered":"PGA Tour winner&#8217;s bizarre bunker method backfires spectacularly to leave announcers stunned \u2013 Australian Golf Digest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We are big fans of PGA Tour winner and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.australiangolfdigest.com.au\/keith-mitchell-playing-it-cool\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">style icon Keith Mitchell<\/a>. We just wish we could ask him what in the world he was thinking on the 15th hole during yesterday\u2019s final round of the Sony Open in Hawaii.<\/p>\n<p>Mitchell was cruising along at four-under for the day when his approach shot on the par 4 found a greenside bunker, resulting in a nasty fried-egg lie. It was a tough spot for sure, but what he did next baffled everyone \u2013 including the announcers on the PGA Tour Live broadcast.<\/p>\n<p>VIDEO: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.australiangolfdigest.com.au\/videos\/jason-king-get-out-of-a-plugged-lie\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">How to get out of a plugged lie<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Mitchell addressed his golf ball with his sand wedge turned over so the toe was down against the back of the ball. And then he dribbled one a few feet that stayed in the bunker. Have a look:<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">What just happened \ud83e\udd14<\/p>\n<p>Keith Mitchell took an unusual approach to a plugged lie on the 15th <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SonyOpenHawaii?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@SonyOpenHawaii<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udcfa: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PGATOURLIVE?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@PGATOURLIVE<\/a> on ESPN+ <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/OHymtPQt1r\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/OHymtPQt1r<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PGATOUR\/status\/2012985883499122860?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">January 18, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Wild stuff.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat? I\u2019ve never attempted that in my life,\u201d one announcer said. \u201cI\u2019ve heard of it before, but I\u2019ve never seen someone try it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And we probably won\u2019t see anyone else try it again after that. To Mitchell\u2019s credit, he then hit a solid conventional bunker shot and wound up saving bogey \u2013 the only blemish on his card during a final-round 67 that left him T-66 in the tour\u2019s season opener, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.australiangolfdigest.com.au\/chris-gotterup-runs-away-with-2026-sony-open-wins-third-tour-title-in-three-years\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">won by Chris Gotterup<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know what to tell you,\u201d an announcer added. \u201cI have no clue what he was trying to do there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In other words, don\u2019t try this at home. Even if you\u2019re one of the best golfers on the planet.<\/p>\n<p>RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.australiangolfdigest.com.au\/watch-will-ferrell-roast-pga-tour-pros-during-tgl-intros-video\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch Will Ferrell roast PGA Tour pros during TGL intros<\/a><\/p>\n<p>    <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We are big fans of PGA Tour winner and style icon Keith Mitchell. We just wish we could&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424953,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[4225,64,63,223277,755,138747,34916,44,1747,223278,214852,85,140454],"class_list":["post-424952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-article","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bunker","tag-golf","tag-golf-digest","tag-keith-mitchell","tag-news","tag-pga-tour","tag-plugged-lie","tag-sony-open-in-hawaii","tag-sports","tag-waialae-country-club"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}