William Mouw wears a bracelet on his right wrist that reads: NEVER GIVE UP.
Talk about practicing what you preach.
Mouw, a 24-year-old PGA Tour rookie from Pepperdine, went viral the Friday after his disastrous eight-bogey 13 on the par-5 16th hole at PGA West. Mouw fired his second shot into a 15-foot-deep bunker guarding the left side of the green, and after a short escape, he hit the bunker twice.
That increase, an all-time high score on No. 16 plus a triple on the par-3 17th, would have made it a 9-for-81, all but guaranteeing Mouw an early exit from The American Express.
A day later, Mouw completed his second consecutive missed sweep, but not without a smile.
“I didn’t have a 13 today, so yeah,” said Mouw, who made nine birdies at La Quinta Country Club, including six in the final seven holes, to shoot a 67 and finish at par (the cut was 9 under).
“Getting nine birdies today and having a positive return to form means a lot to me,” Mouw added in an interview with PGATour.com, “and I took it that way.”
As for this impressive number, Mouw noted that he is not the first to make a mess of this bunker.
“And I definitely won’t be last,” Mouw said, before continuing: “Golf is like life, man. There is adversity and as a player, as a student of the game and as a person who lives, it’s not about dwelling on adversity. It’s a way for you to turn your adversities into positives and use them as motivation to improve yourself and look at the bigger picture. And that’s something I did.”
