Top 10 Major Meltdowns

 8

Scott Hoch

1989 Masters,

Augusta National Golf Club

Appropriately Hoch rhymes with “choke” as the American is best remembered for missing a very short putt to take the Masters in 1989. Hoch and Nick Faldo had finished tied at 5-under, after Faldo produced a brilliant 65 in the final round, including four birdies in the last six holes in driving rain. Hoch had scored an excellent 69, but had faltered on 17, missing a four-foot par putt. Had Hoch not missed his “tap-in” the main story would have been about Ben Crenshaw and Greg Norman, who both bogeyed the last to miss out on a playoff by a shot.

            The pair then went down the 10th in a sudden-death playoff. When Faldo bogeyed after finding a bunker, Scott had a “gimmie” for the title.  Reported as being as short as 18 inches and as long as three feet, it was clearly a very short putt. Just like Doug Sanders at St Andrews, he stood over it for an age before pushing the ball wide. When Faldo holed an improbable 25-footer for birdie at the next hole in appropriately dark and gloomy condtions, “Hoch the Choke” was born.

            Many meltdownees are treated with sympathy and respect, but Scott Hoch is another matter. At times he appears to be an anti-sociopath, upsetting as many people as possible with his remarks - “Telling it like it is” and Tourettes syndrome are hard to distinguish at times. At other times, there are glimpses of an inferiority complex just beneath the surface. It is telling that Kenny Perry is a close friend, often stepping up to tell the world “Scott is a misunderstood guy.”

            Perhaps he is, but when someone who was passed over three times for a place in the Ryder Cup while on the bubble then says “the Ryder Cup is the most over-rated thing I know of” it smacks of sour grapes. Notorious for not competing in the Open Championship to play in events like Milwaukee and the Quad Cities, he famously called St Andrews “the biggest piece of mess I’ve ever seen.” In 2006 he confirmed he said this then helpfully added: “I probably believe worse than that.”