Little known Aussie pro Justin Warren now boasts over 200,000 followers on Twitter but for all the wrong reasons.
Warren’s new fan base comes after the 24-year-old Sydney-born golfer horribly missed a one-foot putt in Monday’s sudden-death play-off to earn the last of four qualifying spots into this week’s PGA Tour Barracuda Championship in California.
Sadly, Warren’s horrible misfortune was 37-year-old American Mark Baldwin good luck and with Baldwin joining Justin Suh, John Greco and Akshay Bhatia as starters in this week’s modified stableford event on the PGA Tour.
“What a harsh lesson to learn. I pray Justin becomes a wiser pro because of that,” wrote PGA Tour winner Michael Thompson.
“There’s a reason we PGA Tour pros take so much time over tap ins. It’s so easy to make a mistake #everyshotcounts.”
Looking at Warren’s putt, it appears he made no effort to line-up the putt, and it was as though he expected to hole the putt which in any weekend round among mates would have been conceded.
Golf is merciless.
24-year-old Justin Warren misses a short putt in a sudden-death playoff at the @CudaChamp Monday Qualifier.
The chase for his first PGA TOUR start continues. pic.twitter.com/qJ89zr9CAH
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 3, 2021
Naturally, Warren reacted with shock after his ball hit the left side of the hole and came to rest six inches behind the cup.
He stood there absolutely stunned for some 10 seconds as the enormity of the mistake sunk in.
Warren later took to social media to have his say, after the video of his missed putt reached over 200,000 views in 12 hours on Twitter.
Replying to the PGA Tour tweet regarding his miss, Warren said: “Can assure that the feeling isn’t good. Amazing what nerves and pressure do. Routine flew straight out the window and rushed an extremely important putt. On to the next one.”
Warren also cited Rory McIlroy as his favourite golfer and publically sought the four-time major winner’s advice.
McIlroy was asked what he thought of Warren’s lost opportunity ahead of this week’s $US 10.5m WGC – FedEx St. Jude Invitational in Memphis.
“Don’t miss one‑footers, I guess, is a piece of advice”, said McIlroy smiling and unaware of the young Aussie’s misfortune.
“I guess that’s a little bit tough love.
“Like my first chance to win a professional event was in Crans‑sur‑Sierre in the European Masters in 2008 and I missed ‑‑ I basically missed like a one‑and‑a‑half‑footer in a playoff and it probably ‑‑ I thought about it for a long time until I got that first win.
“But I guess the solace he (Warren) can take is he’s played well enough to give himself a chance. Like we all do dumb things under pressure at times, I’ve certainly done them.
“The next time ‑‑ you know, I learned from that that every putt that I had, I took a little bit more time and I wasn’t quite as careless. So there’s a lot of things you can learn from these things. I guess he can take encouragement that he gave himself a chance and he played well to be in that spot”.
