College Golfer Dives Into Lake After Dropping Ball Off of His Shoe

Jacksonville University senior golfer David Wicks experienced some very bad luck during his match in the NCAA Baton Rouge regional tournament on Wednesday.

Wicks was on the fourth hole at LSU’s University Club, which was his 13th hole of the day, when he bent down and marked a three-foot putt for par. While he was waiting for the other players to putt, he crouched down to read his own putt, but when he stood back up and reached into his front pocket to retrieve his ball, he dropped it and it kicked off of his shoe, rolled off the green, over a bulkhead, and fell into the water behind him.

Knowing that he needed to find his ball in order to avoid a two-stroke penalty that could keep his team from advancing, Wicks did the only thing he could and stripped down to enter the water and look for his ball.

"“I was always going to go in,” Wicks said. “If I hadn’t gone in and we’d lost by a shot, the nine-hour drive back I would have been thinking about it the whole time. At least I know now.”"

Wicks found about 30 balls, none of which were his, but he made par on the rest of his holes to force a playoff against Northwestern and then won the sudden-death playoff to advance.

"“I was determined to redeem myself,” he said. “I was worried that everyone would remember my college career as the guy who lost us a spot at nationals. That wasn’t the way I was going to go out.”"

Sometimes the golf Gods are smiling down on you and even though Wicks lost his ball and was penalized, he had good luck the rest of the way.

[HT Golf Channel]