Cypress tree claims JT's golf ball at Harding Park

The golf gods giveth, the golf gods taketh away.

Just four days after reclaiming his position as world No. 1 with a victory at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, Justin Thomas lost his ball in a tree at the par-4 seventh hole at the 102nd PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park. The bad break was part of a first-round 71 for the FedExCup leader.

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Thomas was in the marquee group of the morning, with Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, which started on the back nine. Thomas had double-bogeyed the third hole, but steadied himself with three straight pars to remain at even par as he stood on the seventh tee. He lost his tee shot right.

Then he literally lost it. The ball soared into the lush greenery of a cypress tree, and lodged there. It was a situation that Woods predicted we would see this week.

“With the overhang of these cypress trees and the ball – there may be a couple lost balls here,” Woods said before the tournament. “Cut a corner and ball hangs up there, that could happen very easily here and has happened and I'm sure will this week as well.”

It did.

Thomas stood in the rough, looking forlornly up at the tree, recalling a similar moment in the first round of the 2014 John Deere Classic, when he also lost a ball in a tree. He later tweeted:

Well, it wasn’t the last time. And it wasn’t funny this time, either. When his ball never came down at TPC Harding Park, Thomas was forced to take the stroke-and-distance penalty. His next tee shot was his third shot on the hole. It was unlucky, and with the stiff penalty he made another double-bogey. He did well just to salvage a 71 with a birdie at the difficult ninth hole.

McIlroy shot even-par 70 and Woods was low man in the group with a 68.

To Woods’ point, the incident was somewhat predictable.

At the Olympic Club, which is visible across Lake Merced from TPC Harding Park, there have been multiple high-profile incidents involving balls hanging in the thick cypress trees that are common to the city's golf courses.

Lee Janzen saw his ball get stuck in a tree during the final round of the 1998 U.S. Open at Olympic Club, but it fell out just before the five-minute search limit and he went on to win the tournament. Lee Westwood started the final round of the 2012 U.S. Open at Olympic in fourth place, but he lost a tee shot in a cypress tree and went on to finish four back of Webb Simpson.

Even Woods, who attended Stanford University in Palo Alto, just down the peninsula from TPC Harding Park, admitted to having lost golf balls to the cypress trees.

“Well, not here,” he said. “I've had a few at (nearby) Lake Merced. That's one of the tightest golf courses and most claustrophobic places that I've ever played. Yeah, I've lost a few there.”