Please pardon my French for what follows, but when one of my buddies did the unimaginable a few weeks ago and double hit a shot from the rough, he muttered in a state of total disbelief, “I just TC Chen-ed that mother ******!” As funny as it was to the rest of us, it was just as awful to him. Oh, we were laughing with him because we’ve all had our embarrassing moments. Nobody ever escapes the occasional incredibly bad shot or bad breaks that come with the game of golf. Even professionals at the highest level of the game are not exempt. I once witnessed Jack Nicklaus cold topping a 3-wood shot about 100 yards or so from the middle of the 17th fairway during his win at the 1980 U.S. Open at Baltusrol. Honestly, I almost couldn’t believe my eyes. Try to imagine Tiger Woods doing the same thing.

That brings us back to the fate of a wonderful young talent by the name of T. C. Chen, who in 1982 became the very first golfer from Taiwan to earn a PGA Tour membership. Chen would win once on Tour in 1987 - at Riviera, no less - and contend many other times, including one playoff loss to a young Fred Couples at Congressional in 1983. He also was tied for the lead on the back nine of the 1987 Masters, which was famously won on a chip-in by Larry Mize in sudden death. It seems Chen had a knack for playing well on great golf courses. For those of you who do not know, he hit what is likely the ultimate horror shot in a Major Championship at the 1985 U.S. Open at Oakland Hills: the infamous double hit.

Leading by four huge shots going into the par 4 fifth hole of the final round, Chen tried to explode his ball like a sand shot from heavy greenside rough and came up short, still in the rough. Most people forget that the stunner came on his second attempt at a flop shot. (They call it a penalty but essentially you are counting the second hit as a separate shot and then you play from where it lies.) Chen, visibly shaken, went on to make a quadruple bogey 8 and lose the Championship by a single shot to an extremely fortunate Andy North.

Another forgotten fact is that Chen also scored the only double eagle in U.S. Open history in the first round of the very same tournament on the par five second hole. Everyone still calls a 2 on a par 5 an albatross but, if you ever manage to double hit your ball, you’ll find most everyone will usually call that one a TC Chen.

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