Pro Golfer’s Drive Landed Up Inside Of A Bag Of Aluminum Cans And He Managed To Still Make Birdie

Pixabay / Mabel Amber

‘Play it as it lies’ is one those moments from Adam Sandler’s Happy Gilmore that has lived on in golf infamy since the moment that movie hit theaters. A golfer’s ball could wind up literally inside of a dead animal and his buddy would still drop ‘play it as it lies’.

Callum Shinkwin is an English golfer on the European Tour who had his own ‘play it as it lies’ moment this week at the Cyprus Open but thankfully for him he followed the rules and was able to make birdie. It’s pretty easy to find a million articles online about the Happy Gilmore ‘play it as it lies’ rule and how Happy could’ve and should’ve taken relief. If there’s a Temporary Immovable Obstruction/non-permanent artificial object in the way you get relief.

The relief is optional and Happy opted to play it as it lies but Callum Shinkwin took advantage of the rules when his drive ended up literally inside of a paper bag full of aluminum cans. How the ball ended up there is beyond comprehension but it did, and he still managed to make a birdie after the wayward drive.

The European Tour tweeted out a thread of the action that started with a miserable drive and ended with a birdie. I have to hope that Callum spent the entire hole quoting Happy and finished with “Did that go in? I wasn’t watching, did it go in? I didn’t see it, could you tell me if it went in?”

Callum Shinkwin is currently tied for 5th at the Cyprus Open but that’ll almost certainly change by the time you read this. Currently, he’s -5 on the day and -9 for the tournament.