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Webb Simpson has a super power, and he does not want other golfers to mimic it, so if you play on the PGA Tour, please stop reading this article now.
On Saturday at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, Simpson finished the day at 15-under par, good for second, thanks in part to a hole-in-one on No. 12. To do that, to have an ace, to log one of the most exciting things in golf, he needed to do just one thing: talk about it.
“I was just talking to Scott Piercy this morning about his hole-in-one yesterday on 7, so I think it was just in my mind, I guess,” Simpson said.
That’s right — getting a hole in one for Simpson is like yawning for plebeian humans. Simply talk about it, think about it, and it comes naturally. It becomes contagious.
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“I guess so,” he said. “I’m not going to tell anybody about my hole-in-one. I don’t want to help anybody else for tomorrow. But yeah, it was cool how we were talking about it this morning, and I think there’s been a few this week.”
So far there have been three across the whole field, with one each day. J.B. Holmes did it Thursday on 4. Piercy did it Friday on 7. And Saturday brought Simpson on 12. He will now enter Sunday’s final round just one stroke behind the leader, Tony Finau.
Simpson shot a 7-under 64 on Saturday at TPC Scottsdale, after going 8 under the previous day. Simpson entered Round 3 tied for eighth, and on the back nine, he strung together three birdies and the hole-in-one in a stretch of five holes. It was his third ace on tour, and while memorable, he’ll need to watch some highlights later to know exactly how it happened.
“As soon as I hit it, I knew I hit a good shot,” he said. “I quit watching it because I can’t see the green, I can’t really see that well to gauge how far it was from the hole.
“I was looking at the crowd, and they got more excited, and then their hands went up. And first, my first thought was, ‘That couldn’t have gone in.’ And then it dawned on me they were really excited, so it was fun.”
Simpson generally tries to compartmentalize, but naturally here, the excitement continued. He made par on 13, one of three par-5s on the course, before back-to-back birdies.
“13 was fun because that crowd’s still big on 13 tee,” he said. “I hit a great drive, really bad second shot, but, yeah, you ride the momentum for a little bit, but it’s back to work on the next hole, you got to keep focusing.”
If the holding pattern continues of one hole-in-one per day, and if the hole location keeps advancing— from 4 to 7 to 12 — perhaps if fans are lucky, Sunday will bring a late-round ace on No. 16. Certainly, any ace will do, but some spots bring a little more fanfare. Piercy, tied for fifth after Saturday at 13-under, learned that the hard way this week.
“I guess whenever you make a hole-in-one in Phoenix it’s pretty awesome. But I just did it on the wrong side, where everybody didn’t see it,” he said Friday.
Either way, people still heard about it. But the game of telephone may end with Simpson, who spent Saturday afternoon recounting all the aces of his career.
“On tour, three — (overall) it might be 10. Might be 10,” he said, smiling. “I don’t know. Which is sad, I’m sorry. Maybe nine. 10 sounds better than nine. We’ll go with 10.”
So we can go with 10 for now. If anyone can simply speak a hole in one into existence, it’s Simpson.
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