Francesco Molinari walked to up the final tee box needing a miracle to make the cut at the US Open.
The Italian delivered with the shot of the day – a historic hole in one on the 177m, par three ninth using a seven iron (watch the video above).
Molinari, who started the round on the back nine, was two strokes over the projected cut line at the time, but the eagle moved him to five over for the tournament and will allow him to play on.
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It marks the first time a player has made the cut on the number with a hole in one since the PGA Tour began keeping such records in 2003.
Molinari could barely believe his eyes when the ball hit the left edge of the green and starting tracking toward the cup and fell in.
His playing partners, Ryo Ishikawa and Sergio Garcia, had already hit their tee shots and were walking toward the green when they heard the roar of the crowd.
They raised their arms in the air simultaneously before returning to congratulate Molinari on the tee box.
“I don’t even know what to say. Just incredible,” Molinari said of his third career ace on the PGA Tour.
“It was the last chance to have a chance to play the weekend. I saw we were still 61st (the top 60 and ties make the cut) at the time. Yeah, that’s golf in a nutshell.”
Molinari said he wasn’t going for an ace, but just wanted to get the ball close and have a shot at a birdie – and then just hope for the best.
“I had just bogeyed eight,” Molinari said.
“I was hoping I was able to par eight and then having to make two at nine. With that flag, if you hit a good shot, you can get it within birdie range. But the chances are incredibly small, so I don’t know what to say.”
Meanwhile, Tiger Woods was unable to find the right mix of quality shots and timely breaks at Pinehurst No.2 to extend his first US Open appearance in four years into the weekend.
The three time US Open champion missed the cut at seven over on the Donald Ross course, struggling to deal with tricky domed greens and sandy native areas featuring plants instead of traditional rough.
Woods shot a three over 73 after opening with a 74, marking his 13th consecutive round without breaking par in a major.
“It’s one of those things where in order to win a golf tournament, you have to make the cut,” Woods said.
“I can’t win the tournament from where I’m at, so it certainly is frustrating. I thought I played well enough to be up there in contention. It just didn’t work out.”
Woods won the US Open in 2000, 2002 and 2008 on the way to becoming a 15-time major champion.
He accepted a special exemption to play this week at Pinehurst No.2, where he finished third in the US Open in 1999 and second in 2005 but didn’t compete in the 2014 edition due to one of his back surgeries.
Asked whether this could be his last US Open, Woods was noncommittal.
“As far as my last US Open championship, I don’t know what that is,” he said. “It may or may not be.”
Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg took a one shot lead into the third round ahead of a group that features Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Cantlay and Rory McIlroy.
“It’s the first time I’ve ever played with him. The guy is like a machine from what I saw,” Tony Finau said of Aberg.
“I obviously am focused on what I’m doing and playing my game, but he hit a lot of fairways and a lot of greens. He sure makes it look pretty easy.”
The 24-year-old wasn’t flawless.
Aberg did miss two fairways and he had two bogeys, one from the sandy landscape left of the eighth fairway, another when his approach on the 16th rolled through the green and into a back bunker.
“It’s not an easy golf course to play,” Aberg said.
“But I felt like we stayed very disciplined, stayed very patient and tried to hit it to our targets all the time.”
No one has won the US Open in their first try since 20-year-old Francis Ouimet in 1913 at The Country Club
But Aberg is hardly a newcomer to this kind of stage.