A flop shot is one of the most delicate and high-risk moves in golf, played with an open face, launched almost straight up, and meant to land soft and stop quickly. When it works, it saves strokes. When it doesn’t, it exposes every grain, every tight lie, and every mistake around the green. At the BMW Australian PGA Championship, Sebastián Garcia learned exactly how punishing that gamble can be on Australian turf.

The unraveling began at the 15th when Garcia attempted the aggressive option from a tricky position. The booth reacted instantly: “Wow, they tried to pull out the flop shot and that didn't work.” What looked playable in practice turned into a nightmare in competition. 

Garcia later explained, “Well, in the fitting I have 20 yards short the pin, it's perfect and the light is perfect, like a tee, I hit perfect and I move four meters and the next shot it is true, the cut is very, very, very, the ground is very, very cut and in my mind, okay, you pitch so close the pin and one putt at three or four meters long the pin and okay, it's fine. Clean think and go back to the green and now this is the goal.”

But the lie had deteriorated. The commentators assessed the situation: “He's gonna have to do it again, very high risk shot and a little surprised he didn't just take a more conservative option because he left himself in a very awkward spot.”

A second attempt only dug him deeper into trouble. “Slightly tighter lie this time around and he's on the upslope too, which often means that you're back into the grain, encourage the leading edge of the club to kind of dig into the grass a little bit.”

What followed was a complete short-game collapse. “My goodness, he's making a mess of this 15th after an excellent tee shot, everything downhill on the green, things are going from bad to worse.” Garcia, who had “carved it up on the opening day,” now faltered badly during the second round.

For his third attempt, he abandoned the wedge entirely. “He's got the putter out this time, so making a safer option.” But even that didn’t rescue him. “He's throwing his hands up in the air, there's a little ridge there, and he's just missed it.”

Moments later came the confirmation: “That was for bogey, which means it's a seven on the card. He also made a 6 at the 9th as well.”

From a bold flop shot to a triple-bogey seven, Garcia’s nightmare at the 15th showed how unforgiving Australian greens can be, and how one misjudged shot can unravel an entire round.

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Written by

Aditi Singh

Edited by

Oajaswini Prabhu