Watch: Jon Rahm's spectacular skip-shot ace at Augusta
If you ever get the chance to attend a practice round at Augusta National, walk — don’t run — down to the 16th green, where you can sit and watch the world’s best try to skip their shots across the pond. If they’re lucky, they can get a couple skips. If they’re really lucky, they can bounce it up onto the green. And if they’re ridiculously, this-could-be-a-sign lucky, they do this:
From pond to pin! Rahm skips to a hole-in-one on No. 16 at #themasters pic.twitter.com/JNNPWgW9OP
— The Masters (@TheMasters) November 10, 2020
Yes, that’s Jon Rahm, one of the favorites (+1000) at this year’s Masters, just casually slapping a ball across the surface of the water, up onto the green, around a bend, and right into a cup 170 yards away.
The Augusta Chronicle, the authority on all things Masters, believes that Lee Trevino began the skip-shot tradition back in the mid-1980s, which, considering Trevino’s style, seems about right. Vijay Singh aced his skip in 2009, and Martin Kaymer did the same thing in 2012.
It’s now mandatory for every player circulating through the 16th on a practice round to attempt a skip, or incur the wrath of patrons shouting “SKIP!” all around them.
Even without patrons in attendance, Rahm bowed to the pressure of the moment ... and seized it.
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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter at @jaybusbee or contact him with tips and story ideas at jay.busbee@yahoo.com.
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