'Water makes athletes do stupid things': A tragic shank sinks an Olympian

Pia Babnik had just made Le Golf National as easy to digest as a croissant, and the reporter was curious on Thursday after her Olympics second round 66. if you get hit badly or something like that, will it punish you more?”

Here is his answer:

“I was really focused on trying to hit the fairway. It's not easy at all. You just have to keep the ball on the fairway, and then yes, it's very easy, but also the second shot is very difficult. And yes, I was able to overcome these things today. “

However, on Friday, at the worst possible time, Babnik did not.

In the third round of the Olympics, on the 397-yard, par-4 15th hole, he missed the fairway off the tee, had a “hard” second swing — a shank, actually — and was penalized “heavily.” Babnik started the hole behind the lead, and, following a quadruple-bogey eight in it, will start Saturday's final round behind leaders Morgane Metraux and Lydia Ko.

Before the 15th, he was on the move, following bogeys on the 1st and 3rd holes. He birdied the par-4 6 from 12 feet. He bogeyed the par-5 9th after hitting his third shot 3 feet. He played the par-3 11th after rolling to 11 feet. But disaster soon followed.

On the 15th, respectively, Babnik:

— He found water right on the right dogleg with his tee shot.

– He took a drop that netted him 143 yards. Here, Golf Channel cameras caught up with him. He swayed and shivered. The ball rolled to the right and about 25 yards short of the green. Babnik groaned. He returned to his card, covering his mouth with his right hand on the way. In his bag, he slammed his iron down, before being handed a driver on his looper in preparation for a second penalty. On the Golf Channel, announcer Tom Abbott said: “Oh dear. Oh, the shank. Water makes these players do crazy things. It's amazing, isn't it?”

— Hit his fifth shot to the left of the green.

– Hit his sixth shot to 8 feet.

— You missed that.

– Made a 20-incher for quadruple bogey.

It is here, however, that we will try to twist things in a positive way.

Notably, it's been a good week for the 20-year-old Slovakian who has won twice on the Ladies European Tour. He said he's starting to find a groove with the throwback; before it was “all over the place.” He said he enjoyed himself so much that he can now play in places like the Games every week. He also saw other athletes. One stood out.

“Maybe the best thing was after Novak Djokovic won the medal,” said Babnik, “he came to the Village and he was in the Serbian house, we passed by and they were dancing, shouting and it was so fun to watch.”

Can he go back? Can he get the medal? That's right. He is also fifth on the team tied for third place.

The thought will be to just find the fairway. Just to navigate those second images.

As he said.

Nick Piastowski

Golf.com Editor

Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for planning, writing and promoting news on the golf course. And when he's not writing about how to hit the golf ball forward and straight, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short, and drinking a cold beer to wash down his scores. You can contact him about any of these topics – his news, his game or his beer – at [email protected].