We’re not blaming NBC’s Dan Hicks for Scottie Scheffler losing the Houston Open, but a more superstitious person might.
Scheffler lost the 2024 Texas Children’s Houston open in the final round Sunday afternoon, missing out on winning his third straight PGA Tour victory as Stephan Jaeger registered the win. The World No. 1 golfer, however, had a chance to force a playoff with Jaeger. He just needed to make a five-foot putt on the 72nd hole.
“Five feet, four inches,” Hicks said on the NBC broadcast. “And World No. 1 hasn’t missed a putt inside seven feet the entire weekend. The part of his game that gets talked about, criticized a lot of this season, on the line here to move it to a playoff.”
The World No. 1 hasn’t missed a putt inside seven feet all weekend and needs to make one more putt inside seven feet to force a playoff? Oh no.
And on cue, Scheffler missed the put. Was it caused by an announcer jinx from Hicks? Was it the result of Scheffler’s hot putter returning to some of his past putting woes? Or was the miss just that, a miss. Probably the latter, but the impeccable timing was conspicuous.
After the tournament, Scheffler admitted he thought he was about to force a playoff on that putt. “I hit two or three really good shots into 18 to give myself a chance and I felt like I made the putt and I looked up and it was breaking off,” he said.
Later, Scheffler chalked the miss up to a misread. But surely, some golf fans are wondering whether an announcer jinx may have been the reason for Scheffler’s putt “breaking off.”
[NBC]
