Tour pros are a particularly perceptive bunch.
You can’t even begin to count the number of times that a pro or caddie has complained about a camera click going off as they were preparing to hit a shot. However, what happened to European Tour pro Nacho Elvira on Sunday on the 72nd hole goes above and beyond any type of normal distraction.
In search of his first European Tour victory, Elvira was trailing Australian Scott Hend by a stroke as they played the par-5 18th hole at Saujana Golf & Country Club in Kaula Lumpur at the Maybank Championship.
Having laid up just short of the green in two, Elvira was facing a relatively straight-forward pitch as the skies in Malaysia started to darken and rain began to fall. In a cruel twist of fate, the instant Elvira began to play the shot, thunder rolled across the course throwing him off his game.
To make matters worse, the European Tour suspended play following Elivra hitting his third shot due to electricity in the area, meaning he had to wait out a lengthy delay to hit his birdie putt.
With Hend sitting 20 feet away for birdie and the win, Elvira stepped up to his 30-footer some 100 minutes after hitting his third shot and jarred it, which forced a playoff after Hend missed his attempt.
CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT!!@nachoelvira87 has drained it! pic.twitter.com/O1lfYU5FHQ
— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) March 24, 2019
“It was thunder in a bad moment but the gods did give me one back with that putt,” Elvira said.
Hend was able to birdie the first playoff hole after his drive ricocheted off a tree and back into the fairway, allowing him to hit his second shot into the greenside bunker from which he hit it close to leave a tap-in birdie for the victory.
?️ Every shot of the play-off between Scott Hend and Nacho Elvira.#MaybankChampionship pic.twitter.com/5Zwh5h3gyz
— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) March 24, 2019
“What a putt by Nacho,” Hend said, according to EuropeanTour.com. “If I was to go out there and hit that putt you would say you would hole it one in ten times. It was an amazing putt, and in the situation he holed it. All credit to Nacho, it was fantastic.
“I had the luck today, unfortunately for Nacho. His time will come, he’s going to win. He’s a great player.”
