Top amateur golfer Gordon Sargent had the worst luck after a damaged 18th hole rejected his tap-in putt

Golf can be a brutally unforgiving sport, and top-ranked amateur golfer Gordon Sargent got a dose of that reality at the most unfortunate time on Sunday.

Putting on 18 to finish out his final round at the U.S. Open, Sargent was looking at an easy tap-in putt for par. He did everything right in that moment and seemingly deserved to end the afternoon at two-under (three-over par for the tournament). But a damaged cup would lead to the flukiest of bounces.

Sargent’s putt went into the cup and somehow bounced right out in a totally unnatural way. Sargent stared in disbelief as he had to settle for bogey on the hole and four-over par for the tournament.

How does that even happen?

Just cruel for Gordon Sargent on the 18th.

: @NBC & @peacock | #USOpen pic.twitter.com/WDbD4AYm17

— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) June 18, 2023

The bounce was so strange that USGA officials went to investigate what happened there. They determined that the group before Sargent inadvertently damaged the hole when the flagstick was removed. While USGA was able to repair the cup, it wasn’t much of a consolation for Sargent who had to take an undeserved bogey.

Could you imagine if this happened to a golfer in contention, though? USGA avoided disaster at Sargent’s expense, but golf fans still couldn’t believe that the cup malfunction wasn’t caught earlier.

It could have been so bad.