Ludvig Aberg gets bad break of the century after approach shot strikes Collin Morikawa’s ball, ends up off the green

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In the immortal words of actor Sam Elliott, sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes the bear eats you. Last time we checked there are no bears in Scotland, but Ludvig Aberg still found himself in the jaws of the beast during the opening round at the Renaissance Club when this lovely, arcing approach landed on playing partner Collin Morikawa’s ball like an Acme Anvil on Wile-E-Coyote, sending both balls squirming off the green. Watch it and weep:

“That’s gotta be one in 10,000,” says the announcer, but honestly that seems like a conservative estimate. One in 100,000 seems more like it to us. Aberg’s ball has a zillion square miles of earth to land on and it plops right down on top of Morikawa’s. Probabilities have nothing to do with it. That’s just plain old bad luck.

Them’s the breaks when you’re playing links golf, though. Even when the wind is down, like it was in North Berwick on Thursday, it still finds a way to hose you. It’s not all bad news, however. Morikawa was able to replace his ball on the original spot with no penalty and Aberg now has a chip to cash with Lady Luck when he needs it. That’s not bad leverage to have heading into the final major of the year.

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