Ben An was at the beach, the sun was out, it was Friday, and he was done with his job for the week. He was peachy.
Feisty, too.
Hours earlier, he was presumably discouraged. An had started his Players Championship respectably, shooting a three-under 69, and he was tied for 21st after the first round. But then Friday came, and golf balls were lost.
In order during his second round, An:
— Double-bogeyed the 387-yard, par-4 4th after hitting his second shot into the water left of the green.
— Double-bogeyed the 386-yard, par-4 6th. But he’d also made three birdies on his front nine, and he was one-over for the day going to 10.
— Double-bogeyed the 408-yard, par-4 10th after taking a penalty stroke after his tee shot.
— Parred the 566-yard, par-5 11th after hitting his second shot into the water to the right of the green.
— Bogeyed the 375-yard, par-4 12th after taking a penalty stroke after his tee shot.
— Bogeyed the 489-yard, par-4 14th and the 447-yard, par-5 15th.
— Quadruple-bogeyed the 147-yard, par-3 17th after hitting two-straight shots into the water on the famed island hole.
An did sandwich two birdies around the seven on 17, but it was not enough. The damage was ugly. An shot an eight-over 80, with six penalty strokes, five of which came on his back nine. He finished two rounds tied for 120th, a drop of a whopping 99 spots from the day before.
But An is a mellow soul. He seemingly was not overly distraught.
He even had time to log on to Twitter, read a few bouquets tossed his way and answered in kind.
A sampling:
— “You laughing at this round today?! Me too,” wrote one troll.
Replied An about a half-hour later: “Of course. Couldn’t have played better.”
— “Great round today. Another miss cut,” wrote another troll.
Replied An about 20 minutes later: “You must have mistaken me some other korean player. This is my first miss cut in few months…”
— “You are terrible at golf,” wrote a third troll.
Replied An five minutes later: “I agree. It was terrible golf today.”
Another response was maybe his best, though.
Wrote the troll: “If one hour after you miss a cut you are on Twitter getting after it with fans, therein lies the problem.”
Replied An about a half-hour later: “What?”
It included a picture of him at the beach.
